Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Jan 5: The Indian Air Force (IAF) presented a detailed tei-services inquiry report on Wednesday to the Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on the Mi-17 chopper crash. The chopper crash on December 8 led to the death of Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, his wife and 12 other military personnel.
Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari, Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar and inquiry committee chief Air Marshal Manvendra Singh were there to present the report to the Defence Minister.
Sources said that bad weather was the prime reason behind the chopper crash. According to the inquiry team, Wing Commander Prithvi Singh Chauhan who was the pilot of the Mi-17V5 chopper, just 8 minutes before the crash said that he was landing the helicopter. He was piloting the helicopter at a low level. Around 500-600 metre above the surface, a thick layer of cloud shrouded the helicopter, lowering the visibility. It emerged that the crew decided to fly out of the cloud cover rather than land and hit a cliff in the process.
The helicopter was piloted by Wing Commander Prithvi Singh Chauhan, who was set to land at the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington, where General Rawat was slated to deliver a lecture, according to the article. 8 minutes prior to the disaster, the final transmission was recorded.
According to reports, the investigation report ruled out sabotage as a possible cause of the chopper crash.
