New Delhi: An Indian Air Force Mi-17V5 helicopter carrying Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika, senior officers and IAF pilots crashed in the Nilgiri hills in Tamil Nadu’s Coonoor district Wednesday, killing 13 of them.
In a tweet, the IAF confirmed that Gen Rawat had died in the crash along with his wife and 11 others.
This was not the first time that Rawat was in a crash. A single engine helicopter carrying him crashed in Nagaland six years ago. The then lieutenant general had survived the fall, escaping with minor injuries.
Rawat wasn’t lucky this time around, as his name got added to a long list of prominent Indians who lost their lives in air crashes.
From Congress leader Sanjay Gandhi to industrialist OP Jindal, here are some of the well known personalities who died in air accidents in independent India.
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Mohan Kumaramangalam: The Congress leader and former Lok Sabha MP died when the Indian Airlines flight he was travelling in crashed in Delhi on May 31, 1973. He was 56 years old then.
Sanjay Gandhi: The Congress leader, who was a pilot himself, died in an air crash in June 1980 in Delhi. Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s youngest son was flying a Pitts S-2A aircraft that crashed.
Surendra Nath: The then Punjab governor was travelling to Kullu from Chandigarh in a 14-seater Beechcraft plane when it crashed in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh on July 9, 1994. The 68-year-old former IPS officer died along with nine of his family members.
Madhavrao Scindia: The senior Congressman Scindia was flying to Kanpur when his chartered flight crashed in an Uttar Pradesh village in September 2001. Scindia, father of current Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, was only 56 years old at that time.
GMC Balayogi: Lok Sabha Speaker and Telugu Desam Party leader Balayogi died in a chopper crash in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh on 3 March 2002.
Soundarya: Actor and Bharatiya Janata Party member KS Sowmya, who was popularly known as Soundarya, died in a helicopter crash on 17 April, 2004. She was only 31. Soundarya was travelling to Karimnagar from Bangalore during an election campaign when the accident occurred.
OP Jindal & Surender Singh: Noted industrialist OP Jindal, who was also the Haryana power minister then, was killed in a chopper crash in March 2005. He was flying back to Chandigarh from Delhi along with then agriculture minister of the state and former CM Bansi Lal’s son, Surender Singh, who also died in the crash.
YS Rajasekhara Reddy: Then Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy died in September 2009 after a twin-engined Bell 430 helicopter carrying him crashed in the state’s Nallamala Hills.
Dorjee Khandu: Former Arunachal Pradesh CM Dorjee Khandu also died in a helicopter crash. The accident took place around 30 km away from Tawang near the India-China border on April 30, 2011. His body was found five days later.