Bolt from the blue: The dead and the lucky : The Mi-17V5 crash that killed Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat is one of the many accidents that ended lives of renowned personalities, some had a close shave

Rescue personnel at the crash site PTI Picture

Pheroze L. Vincent   |   TT  |  New Delhi   |  09.12.21: Lieutenant Generals Daulat Singh and Bikram Singh, and Air Vice-Marshal Erlic PintoNov. 22, 1963, in Poonch district

Totally six personnel were killed when an IAF Aérospatiale Alouette III chopper crashed after colliding with telegraph 

cables.

Balwantrai Mehta, Gujarat chief minister

Sept. 19, 1965, south of Bhuj

Mehta’s Beechcraft Model 18, a civilian aircraft flying from Ahmedabad to Mithapur, was shot down by the Pakistani air force during wartime after it was misidentified as a reconnaissance flight.

Mohan Kumaramangalam, Union minister of steel and mines

May 31, 1973, in Delhi

Kumaramangalam was killed with 48 others onboard an Indian Airlines Boeing 737 flight from Madras that crashed while landing in Delhi after striking high-tension cables in a storm.

Sanjay Gandhi, Amethi MP

June 23, 1980, in Delhi

Sanjay was killed after his Pitts S-2A aircraft crashed during aerobatic manoeuvres near Safdarjung Airport.

Lt Gen. Jameel Mahmood, GOC-in-C, Eastern Command

May 7, 1993, in Bhutan

Mahmood and seven others died in an air crash that bore similarities with Wednesday’s disaster involving Gen. Bipin Rawat. Both aircraft were Mi-17 helicopters and went down in hilly terrain, and the wives of both generals were killed.

Surendra Nath, Governor of Punjab

July 9, 1994, in Kamroonag mountains, Himachal Pradesh

Nath, a former IPS officer credited with successfully countering insurgency and reviving electoral politics in Punjab as governor, was killed with nine family members when his Beechcraft 200 Super King Air airplane from Chandigarh to Kullu apparently lost its way in fog and crashed into a mountain.

N.V.N. Somu, junior defence minister

Nov. 14, 1997, near Tawang

Somu, Maj. Gen. R.C. Nagpal and three others were killed when their Cheetah helicopter — the Indian variant of Aérospatiale SA 315B Lama — crashed in bad weather over the snow-capped Himalayas in Arunachal Pradesh.

Madhavrao Scindia, Guna MP

Sept. 30, 2001, in Motta village, Uttar Pradesh

Scindia and seven others, including four journalists, were killed when a Cessna C-90 of Jindal Strips crashed while flying from Delhi to Kanpur after its engine caught fire. Scindia was on his way to an Assembly poll rally in Uttar Pradesh.

G.M.C. Balayogi, Lok Sabha Speaker

March 3, 2002, in Kaikalur, Andhra Pradesh

Balayogi and the pilot died when their Deccan Aviation helicopter, a Bell 206-B-3, crashed into a fish pond in poor visibility.

Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, Andhra Pradesh chief minister

Sept. 2, 2009, at Rudrakonda Hill, Andhra Pradesh

Reddy and four others were killed when their Bell 430 chopper crashed in rainy weather after developing a snag while flying from Hyderabad to Chittoor.

Dorjee Khandu, Arunachal chief minister

April 30, 2011, in Lobotang, Arunachal Pradesh

Khandu and four others died when their EuroCopter B8 from Pawan Hans crashed on a flight from Tawang to Itanagar. It took four days to recover the bodies in the jungles.

Rescue operation underway PTI Picture

Survivors

Prime Minister Morarji Desai, Arunachal chief minister P.K. Thungon and CBI director John Lobo survived a crash on Nov. 24, 1977, in Tekelagaon, Assam. The IAF Tupolev-124 from Delhi crashed before landing in Jorhat, killing five personnel in the cockpit. The dignitaries, Desai’s son Kantibhai and three IAF personnel survived the accident, caused by engine failure.

Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot survived after his chopper landed on a tree in Churu in 2001

Congress leaders Ahmed Patel, Prithviraj Chavan and Kumari Selja survived a chopper accident in Dadra and Nager Haveli in 2004

Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh and cabinet colleague Partap Singh Bajwa survived after their chopper hit power cables in Gurdaspur in 2006

BJP leaders Rajnath Singh and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi survived after their chopper landed on dry grass that caught fire in Rampur in 2008

Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal survived an emergency landing by a Bell 230 in Ferozepur in 2009.

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis survived an emergency landing in 2017 in Latur and was nearly cut down by the blades of a chopper in Alibaug in July that year.