The Indian defence chief, Gen Bipin Rawat, was among 13 people killed in a helicopter crash on Wednesday, raising questions over the future of military changes he was leading.
Rawat was India’s first chief of defence staff, a position that the government established in 2019, and was seen as close to the prime minister, Narendra Modi.
The 63-year-old was travelling with his wife and other senior officers in the Russian-made Mi-17 helicopter, which crashed near its destination in southern Tamil Nadu state.
The footage from the crash showed a crowd of people trying to extinguish the fiery wreck with water buckets while a group of soldiers carried one of the passengers away on an improvised stretcher.
Rawat was heading to the Defence Services Staff College (DSSC) to address students and faculty from the nearby Sulur air force base in Coimbatore.
Rawat was chief of the 1.3 million-strong army from 2017 to 2019 before his elevation to defence services chief, which analysts said was to improve coordination between the army, navy and air force.
