NEW DELHI: The Court of Inquiry (CoI) report by the tri-service team investigating the IAF Mi-14V5 helicopter crash in which CDS General Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat and 12 others died on December 8 has been forwarded for legal vetting. It will take around 10-15 days before it is finalised.
IAF had ordered the inquiry, with Air Marshal Manavendra Singh as its head. He is the Commander of IAF's training command and a chopper pilot himself. He is assisted by two Brigadier-rank officers from the army and navy.
CDS Bipin Rawat and others were on board when the chopper crashed near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiris district. While the CDS, his wife and 11 others lost their lives in the accident, Group Captain Varun Singh eventually succumbed to his injuries at a Bengaluru hospital on December 15.
The crashed helicopter's 'black box', containing the cockpit voice recorder (a device that records audio communications) and the flight data recorder (which saves the history of the flight) were recovered and examined to seek insights into the tragedy.
Explaining the process. Air Commodore Prashant Dixit (retd) said this exercise of legal vetting is followed in every inquiry because issues may come up once the findings are made public. "The possibilities which are mainly looked into are pilot error, material error, machine error and possibility of external interference. The findings may draw legal proceedings, thus this exercise is carried out," he said.
Another source said legal opinion is important as it will be talking about the ground rules and terms of reference and whether the evidence collected is admissible in court. "This report will bring final closure to the matter and it may also lead to some changes within the department in forms of advisories for future, so these evaluations are followed meticulously," he said.