General Bipin Rawat was India’s Chief of Defence Staff. He had flown from Delhi to the IAF base at Sulur in an Embraer 145 transport, like this one:
The IAF base at Sulur is east of Coimbatore, near this station:
This is quite distinct from Coimbatore’s civil airport, which is near Pilamedu station. But Sulur has served as Coimbatore’s civil airport on some occasions. Civilian airliners have also landed there by mistake, though without damage as the runway was long enough for them.
His destination was at the Army establishment here. He was to deliver a lecture at the Defence Services Staff College.
This journey was to be covered by an IAF Mil Mi-17V5 helicopter (No ZP5164)
like this:
Unfortunately, it crashed near the destination resulting in the deaths of all 14 abroad, including the General and his wife. One survivor died in hospital a week later.
Also see https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/270317
Reports mentioned the crash as being close to the town of Coonoor:
This station is a few km south of Wellington.
Update:
Location of the crash is given in this article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Indian_Air_Force_Mil_Mi-17_crash
The crash site given above (11.3325 N, 76.8078 E) appears to be southeast of the destination of Wellington helipad, and about 3.5 km on a bearing of 122 from Coonoor railway station.
From another source, the Twitter location of the crash site is 11.3396 N, 76.8103 E
Either way, it seems to be off the normal approach which is from the south-west to the Wellington helipad.
(Thanks to Angad Singh).
abn397 