A report by the tri-service court of inquiry team, which was constituted by the Indian Air Force (IAF) to investigate how the IAF Mi-14V5 helicopter carrying CDS General Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat, and 12 others, crashed in Tamil Nadu's Coonoor on 8 December, will be submitted to the government on Friday, 31 December.
Air Marshal Manvendra Singh, who is the Commander of IAF’s training command and a chopper pilot himself, is heading the inquiry, while two Brigadier-rank officers from the army and navy are also included in the probe team.
CDS Bipin Rawat, his wife, defence assistant, security commandos, and an IAF pilot were on board the Mi-series chopper when it crashed 10 miles short of the military cantonment at Wellington in the Nilgiris.
Considered one of the most advanced choppers in the world, the Mi-17V5 is a twin-engine Russian-made military transport version of the Mi-8 helicopters regularly used for high-altitude operations.
India’s fleet owns about several dozens of these choppers, inducted between 2013 and 2018.
Meanwhile, the crashed helicopter's 'black box,' which consists of the cockpit voice recorder (CVR, a device that records the audio communications in the flight deck), and the flight data recorder (FDR, which saves the history of the flight) were recovered during the searches conducted at the crash site.
An examination into the recovered black box is expected to provide insights into the tragedy.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)