Gen Rawat death: Parliament panel report says ‘human error’ caused December 8 chopper crash

The country’s first Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat died in a Mi-17 V5 helicopter crash on December 8, 2021, and a parliamentary panel report has said the reason behind the accident which occurred that day was “human error”.

Gen Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat, and many other armed forces personnel had died after the military helicopter they were travelling in crashed near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu.

The accident was widely reported in the media.
In the report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, the Standing Committee on Defence shared the data on the number of Indian Air Force aircraft crashes that took place during the 13th Defence Plan period.

The total number of crashes stood at 34, including nine IAF aircraft accidents that took place in 2021-22 and 11 in 2018-19.

The tabulated data in the report also contained a column titled “reason” that specified the cause of the accidents in this period, against the aircraft type and date and accident.

The data for the 33rd accident listed in the report mentioned the aircraft as “Mi-17”, date “08.12.2021” and the reason cited was “HE(A)” or “human error (aircrew)”.

The defence ministry informed the Committee that 34 inquiries have been conducted into these accidents during the period.

“The ministry also informed that the recommendations by these Inquiry committees review the process, procedure, training, equipment, culture, operations, maintenance and administration holistically with intent to prevent recurrence of an accident,” the report said.

The ministry further informed that “all remedial measures stipulated by Chief of the Air Staff remarks are binding and actioned”.

“Most have been actioned while a few are under implementation,” it added.

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