[balenoed_]

Military helicopter crashes in Tamil Nadu, senior officials including Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat onboard.

An Army helicopter carrying senior Defence officials crashed at Coonoor in Nilgiris district in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday. Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat was on board, police sources told DH.

News/Pic courtesy: DH, India Today

A fatal crash and many serious injuries. A total of 9 (?) are expected to be on board, with several senior officials and families involved. Rescue operations on, condition of general not known yet. This is not looking good.

[SPIKE ARRESTOR]

I saw some tweets mentioning Helicopter crashes mostly leave no survivors, is there some truth in such a statement? Are the chances of survival in helicopter crashes very low? Is this due to the construction of Helicopter or are there any other reasons?

Praying for the passengers and their families.

Spike

[saikarthik]

Originally Posted by SPIKE ARRESTOR

Are the chances of survival in helicopter crashes very low? Is this due to the construction of Helicopter or are there any other reasons?

Praying for the passengers and their families.

Spike

A very sad incident. I thought the VVIP/VIP transports are kept to a very good level of operation and maintainability. What's more sad are the comments on the YouTube news channels - talking just hared or spreading conspiracy theories and no fact check.

Am no expert, and every crash is different and the terrain, speed, type of issue plays important role to determine survivability. I guess there is only one helicopter in the world "Kamov KA-52 Katran" that has ejector option on any helicopter.

[sierrabravo98]

Originally Posted by SPIKE ARRESTOR

I saw some tweets mentioning Helicopter crashes mostly leave no survivors, is there some truth in such a statement? Are the chances of survival in helicopter crashes very low? Is this due to the construction of Helicopter or are there any other reasons?

Praying for the passengers and their families.

Spike

Yes. Helicopters are statistically the deadliest means of air transport (I will dig up the statistics later) bar a hot-air balloon. That being said, just like cars, some helicopters are safe-r than others. The added safety would depend on the on the number of engine/redundancy in hydraulics/electronics etc. Then there is the structure/fuselage itself.

This is one aspect where the Indian (HAL) ALH Dhruv is supposedly very competent and possess a distinct advantage over choppers like the Mi-17. Back in 2019, then CO of the Northern Command of the Indian Army (Lt. Gen. Ranbir Singh) survived a similarly un-survivable crash in an ALH in Poonch. A lot of veterans credited the miracle to the crash worthy structure of the ALH. Quoting a retired test pilot of the IAF :

Originally Posted by KAYPIUS

Often, the exacting crashworthiness standard of ALH has provided providential escape for stricken crew and pax.

https://kaypius.com/2019/10/25/army-...early-lessons/

https://kaypius.com/2021/08/22/thoug...-at-pathankot/

There are very competent people on this forum (including actual ALH/Mi-17 pilots) who could elaborate quite a lot on this topic.

[.sushilkumar]

Originally Posted by sierrabravo98

Wife of CDS (Shm. Madhulika Rawat) is a confirmed fatality. Judging from the wreck, I doubt there are any survivors. This is a real tragedy and potentially a very horrifying scenario as the Mi17V5 platform is also used by Pegasus (AHQCS) to ferry the President/Vice-President/Prime Minister and the very structure of the Mi17 is not as crash survivable as, say, an ALH. I would not comment more until we have more details but this is the passenger list of the ill-fated heptr.

Edit: Learned from reliable sources that CDS Rawat is a confirmed fatality too. Praying that these sources are wrong but chances are bleak.

That Aircraft number is wrong. Crash happened in a MI-25 helicopter. Quite possible that passenger manifest is also wrong. Let us not spread false news.

[deetee]

Originally Posted by .sushilkumar

That Aircraft number is wrong. Crash happened in a MI-25 helicopter. Quite possible that passenger manifest is also wrong. Let us not spread false news.

Attachment 2242932

The manifest shown seems to be Delhi to Sulur manifest. From Sulur a few more officials might have joined the pax list to Wellington.

[hondafanboy]

Extremely sad and disturbing news. Hope CDS is fine.

[sierrabravo98]

Originally Posted by .sushilkumar

That Aircraft number is wrong. Crash happened in a MI-25 helicopter. Quite possible that passenger manifest is also wrong. Let us not spread false news.

Attachment 2242932

1.) Sincere apologies for the confusion about the aircraft number. This passenger manifest is of the Embraer VIP jet which took the CDS and his entourage to Sukur AFB this morning. However, AFAIK, all of the mentioned names were on-board the ill-fated helicopter.

2.) I am not sure what you mean here. The Mi-24/25 is an armoured attack helicopter used in anti-armour operations and not for ferrying passengers (and 13 VIPs at that). The CDS was indeed travelling in the Mi-17V5.

[EV NXT]

RIP BIPIN RAWAT:

https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/newsr...46466.html/amp

[deetee]

Originally Posted by SPIKE ARRESTOR

I saw some tweets mentioning Helicopter crashes mostly leave no survivors, is there some truth in such a statement? Are the chances of survival in helicopter crashes very low? Is this due to the construction of Helicopter or are there any other reasons?

Praying for the passengers and their families.

Spike

This article throws a harsh spot ligh on why heli crashes are so fatal. The reasons mentioned apply to this crash as well:
https://www.mensjournal.com/features...fety-features/

[airbus]

News reports are not very encouraging. Condition of the injured person is said to be serious.

[AjinkyaP]

Tragic !

Mi-17V5 chopper is said to be one of the most advanced and safest.
Experts are clueless , initial report suggests 'bad weather'

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by saikarthik

A very sad incident. I thought the VVIP/VIP transports are kept to a very good level of operation and maintainability. What's more sad are the comments on the YouTube news channels - talking just hared or spreading conspiracy theories and no fact check.
.

I am sure that such an incident involving the countrys top most serving military official is bound to raise eyebrows. If the investigation reveals something too hot, it may not come out any time soon.

[Hayek]

Quite tragic that General Rawat, Mrs Rawat, the crew and the other officers and soldiers on board are no more. I do hope there is a thorough enquiry, the results are made public, and action is taken based on the same.

From what I know, for someone like the CDS, only the best choppers, manned by the best crew would be used. I also assume that there would have been adequate checks to avoid any form of sabotage (after all, the CDS should have the highest security after the PM, President and perhaps the top 2-3 ministers). Without jumping to conclusions, I just wanted to flag a conversation I had with a retired chopper pilot - he told me the thing he hated most about his job was when he had to fly VVIPs? Why? Because he often had to operate with a lower margin of safety than he felt comfortable doing. Hope that is not the case here.

I may not have liked all of Gen Rawat’s comments esp of political matters. But he was a PVSM - and that is not given lightly or by rank. A salute to you sir - May your soul and that of the others that passed away attain Moksha.

[Reinhard]

What a tragedy. Can't comprehend the depressed mood that I have been in since the news of the accident broke.

Last respect to all those who lost their lives & salute to all the soldiers who laid down their lives. I hope the root cause of the incident is identified and there is closure for all that remain behind.

Hope the CDS office holds good in new hands in future and brings that illusive cohesion between the 3 arms.