In Pictures | Gen. Bipin Rawat helicopter crash: Melancholy moments in Coonoor

Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan visiting the Madras Regimental Centre to pay respects to the defence personnel who lost their lives in the helicopter crash, on Wednesday. (Source: The Hindu)

Mi-17 V5, an Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopter carrying Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen. Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat, an Army Brigadier, and 11 others, crashed into a heavily wooded area of the Coonoor ghat in the Nilgiris in western Tamil Nadu on December 8.

The Cockpit Voice and Flight Data Recorder of the IAF chopper was recovered on Thursday morning, a source said. Further, a tri-service inquiry has been ordered by the IAF headed by Air Marshal Manvendra Singh, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Training Command, to investigate the cause of the crash.

The tragic and untimely death of the country’s first Chief of Defence Staff has created a vacuum at the highest levels of India’s military hierarchy.

Here are a few pictures from Coonoor.

A crowd of onlookers, police and media personnel congregated outside the Shrinagesh Barracks in Wellington, Coonoor, on Thursday. (Source: The Hindu)

A crowd of onlookers, police and media personnel congregated outside the Shrinagesh Barracks in Wellington, Coonoor on Thursday. (Source: The Hindu)

Thirteen ambulances arrived at the Shrinagesh Barracks in Wellington, Coonoor to take the mortal remains of the military personnel who died in a chopper crash in Coonoor. (Source: The Hindu)

Chief Minister M. K. Stalin visited the Madras Regimental Center and paid his respects to Bipin Rawat and 12 other army personnel perished on Wednesday. (Source: The Hindu)

Governor and Chancellor R. N. Ravi offers respects to the portrait of late Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat at Bharathidasan University prior to Convocation ceremony in Tiruchi, on Thursday. (Source: The Hindu)

The Black Box of the Mi-17 V5, an Indian Air Force helicopter that crashed, being taken to Wellington from the crash site. (A video grab)

A vidoe grab of the Air Chief and DGP inspecting the crash site.