Indian Air Force Group Captain Varun Singh, the only survivor of the helicopter crash that killed Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat and 12 others, is being moved to Bengaluru from the Army hospital at Wellington in Tamil Nadu, his father said today.
The crash took place near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday.
Talking to news agency PTI over phone, Group Captain Varun Singh's father Colonel KP Singh (retired), who is a resident of Bhopal, said, "He is being shifted to Bengaluru. I have reached Wellington."
Asked about his son's condition, he said, "I can't say anything about that...I am not sure."
Lt Colonel Ishan R (retired), who lives next door to Col KP Singh's residence at Sun City on the Airport Road in Bhopal, said he was hopeful that Group Captain Varun Singh will recover.
He said Col KP Singh and his wife Uma were in Mumbai at the place of their younger son Tanuj, who is Lt Commander in the Navy, when they got the unfortunate news on Wednesday.
"I spoke to Colonel KP Singh this morning. He said his son was a fighter and will come out victorious (from the tragedy)," he said.
He recalled that Group Captain Varun Singh had earlier survived a life-threatening emergency while flying a Tejas aircraft during a test sortie last year. For his bravery, he was awarded the Shaurya Chakra this year.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday told Parliament that a tri-services inquiry led by Air Marshal Manavendra Singh has started investigation into the helicopter crash that killed Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat and 12 others.
Rajnath Singh said in a statement in the Lok Sabha that all efforts were being made to save Group Captain Varun Singh, who was on life support at the military hospital in Wellington.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
