Coimbatore: A city-based wedding photographer, who had recorded a video of an Indian Air Force helicopter crashing in Coonoor, killing the Chief of Defense Staff General. Bipin Rawat And 12 others said on Friday that bad weather and poor visibility may have been the cause of the accident.
CDS General Rawat, his wife and 11 others were killed when a Mi-17VH helicopter crashed in a wooded valley in the Kateri-Nanjappanachatram area in Coonoor in the Nilgiris district on Wednesday. An Indian Air Force personnel survived the accident and is undergoing treatment in Bengaluru.
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Y Joe Alias Kutty, who recorded moments before the helicopter crashed on Wednesday, attributed the crash to bad weather and poor visibility.
Kutty (52) is a city-based wedding photographer and had recorded the video on his mobile phone which has gone viral on social media.
Kutty and his friend Nazar, along with the latter’s family, went to Kateri to take pictures and curiously, Joe shot a video of the unfortunate helicopter.
Noting that Nazar had come with his family on a tour of Ooty, Kutty said that they were walking on the hill train tracks near Katteri as the women were posing for photographs.
Both told reporters here that as soon as they heard the sound of the helicopter, Kutty started shooting a video and saw that the helicopter had disappeared in the fog and soon after that they heard a sound.
He said that as soon as they tried to reach the hill, a police team reached the spot and stopped them from moving forward.
Though they tried to reach out to the officials in the offices of the District Collectorate and the SP that day, they could not convey the message. “However, we shared the footage with a police officer,” he said.
Meanwhile, all shops, commercial establishments and hotels downed their shutters in Nilgiris district in honor of the departed. Private buses, tourist taxis and autorickshaws also remained off the roads as people organized programs to pay floral tributes to the dead at various places in the district.
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