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Never heard a blast like that: Eyewitnesses on Coonoor crash
Sangeeta was among the first to reach the burning wreckage where the Mi-17V5 helicopter had come down and joined others who were attempting to douse the flames with buckets of water
Chennai: Shortly after noon, 55-year-old K Raja was preparing to attend a wedding in Coonoor town when he heard a loud explosion. He ran out of his home in the village of Kattery and saw a helicopter engulfed in flames crashed on the ground.
“I’ve never heard a blast like that,” said Raja, who lives among the 100-odd families in the hilly village in Nanjappa Chatram, four kilometres from Coonoor.
Raja’s daughter, Sangeeta, 24, was outside their home when she heard a loud sound and saw a helicopter flying very low. She said she saw the helicopter crash into a tree, resulting in an explosion and flames.
“It was at this point that my father rushed out of the house, and we saw the chopper fall to the ground, engulfed in flames and parts falling off. It was misty but there was no rain at the time. When the chopper fell, the fire was so intense that it lit up the sky, cutting through the mist,” Sangeeta said.
At first, there was a sense of shock among the residents of the village. Then they understood the gravity of the situation and rushed to the spot where the Mi-17V5 helicopter had come down to begin rescue operations.
Sangeeta was among the first to reach the burning wreckage and joined others who were attempting to douse the flames with buckets of water. “The crash was so close to our homes and I heard someone calling out for help,” she said.
Her added: “Everyone stopped whatever they were doing. They were screaming.” Many people ran to the crash site to help put out the fire. “There were more blasts and the helicopter kept burning. We carried large pots and kept pouring water, but we couldn’t go too close. It was too hot,” said Raja, a sanitation worker with the Coonoor panchayat.
At the time, the villagers didn’t know that the helicopter was carrying the Chief of Defence Staff(CDS), General Bipin Rawat,and 13 others, and that it had crashed about 10km from the spot where it was meant to land. Rawat, his wife Madhulika and 11 others died in the crash, and the only survivor -- Group Captain Varun Singh -- was taken to the Military Hospital in Wellington.
A labourer, also named Raja, said his friend called him from Kattery and he reached the spot in 10 minutes. “We pulled out and carried the first body,” he said.
Rescue operations were hampered as the crash site was 6 km from the closest road. “It was deep in the forest, full of thorny plants and when we ran to the spot, we saw a person who was on fire,” Raja said. “But he was alive, he waved his hand like he was calling for help. So my friends and I used a bedsheet to carry him up the hill to the road.”
All emergency services, including the police and fire services, and military personnel reached the spot soon after the crash and the rescue operations lasted more than three hours. “It was the public that first went and began carrying bodies though,” Raja, the labourer, said. Larger fire engines couldn’t access the route to the crash site and even smaller vehicles took time to reach the spot because there was a traffic jam, he said.
Officials said the crash occurred around 12.20pm. Rescue teams were seen pulling out people with severe burn injuries from the site. “The rescue operations finished between 3.45pm and 4pm,” said Tamil Nadu forest minister K Ramachandran. Eight ambulances were and six medical teams from Coimbatore’s government and private hospitals were sent to the site, said state health secretary J Radhakrishnan.
Local residents are used to seeing army helicopters flying over the area as there is a military helipad and the Defence Services Staff College at Wellington, where Rawat was to address students on Wednesday. “But this is the first time something so terrible happened,” said Raja.
The entire settlement was traumatised after witnessing or learning about the horrific crash, he added.
Another witness, Krishnaswamy, told reporters that the occupants of the helicopter were badly burnt. “They (rescuers) took them out and then I left because I got scared looking at the people who were burnt,” he said. Another witness said he had seen the helicopter flying at a very low level when it abruptly fell, hitting a tree with a loud noise.
(With inputs from C Hamza in Coonoor)
