Tourists visit chopper crash site as Army vacates

The Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel vacated the helicopter crash site in Coonoor after having completely removed the remnants of the chopper A M1-17VH helicopter crashed claiming the lives of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat and 12 others on December 8.

Soon, after the tragic incident, the army brought the crash site under its control and barred outsiders from visiting the spot. The black box, which has crucial information on the circumstances that led to the chopper crash, was recovered on the very next day of the crash.

However, the laborious process of recovering broken pieces of the helicopter from the site continued by a large team deployed by the army. Even though small pieces of the chopper were carried out by the defence personnel, some large parts like rotor and tail piece were brought out of the forest area with a winch on Sunday.

Thereafter, the recovered parts were taken to Sulur Air Force base by trucks. With the completion of the recovery process, the army personnel vacated the spot allowing normalcy to return in the neighbourhood.

With the lifting of restrictions, the crash site turned into a tourist spot with a steady stream of tourists visiting the place on Monday.

Tourists, who turned up in the spot located near Nanjappa Chatiram village, took selfies and photographs in the place where the tragic incident claimed the lives of 14 persons.