CDS Bipin Rawat to Ebrahim Raisi: A look at officials and state heads who were killed in air crashes

Here is a list of political leaders and officials who died in air crashes in the last few decades:

January 2024: Former Chilean President Sebastian Pinera

Before this, former Chilean President Sebastian Pinera died from drowning after a helicopter crash in a lake in the south of the country on February 6, 2024.

The helicopter had four people on board, three of whom survived the crash.

At the time of the crash, there was widespread rainfall in the area, but it is unclear if the weather caused the crash. Pinera’s body was recovered by the Chilean navy.

December 2021: CDS General Bipin Rawat

India’s top most defense official, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen Bipin Rawat, his wife, and twelve other defense officials died in a chopper crash near Tamil Nadu’s Coonoor on December 8, 2021.

CDS Rawat was headed toward the Defense Staff College in Wellington and the helicopter Mi-17 V5 took off from the Sulur IAF station in Coimbatore. The accident resulted from entry into clouds due to an unexpected change in weather conditions in the valley. This led to the pilot’s spatial disorientation, resulting in a Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT).

April 2011: Arunachal Chief Minister, Dorjee Khandu

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu died in a helicopter crash on April 30, 2011. He was found dead in Luguthang, near the China border.

The four other people on board with him – the two pilots, Captain JS Babbar and Captain T S Mamik, his security officer Yeshi Choddak, and Yeshi Lhamu, sister of a Tawang MLA – also died.

September 2009: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Y S Reddy

Before this, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was found dead after a helicoper went missing on 3 September, 2009. The senior Congress leader, popularly known as YSR, was flying a Bell 430 to Chitoor district in Andhra Pradesh. His body was traced 27 hours after the helicopter went missing.

March 2005: Haryana cabinet ministers, O P Jindal & Surendra Singh

O P Jindal, Haryana’s then-power minister, a noted industrialist, and state agriculture minister Surendra Singh were killed when the chopper carrying them developed a technical snag and went down near Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh on March 31, 2005.

March 2002: TDP leader, G M C Balayogi

Lok Sabha Speaker and Telugu Desam leader G M C Balayogi died in a chopper crash on March 3, 2002, in Andhra Pradesh. Balayogi was in a Bell 206 helicopter. An official probe revealed that the crash occured due to poor visibility, when the pilot mistakenly landed on a pond thinking it was a land surface.

September 2001: Congress leader, Madhavrao Scindia

Madhavrao Scindia, a senior Congress leader, and a former union cabinet minister, was killed in a Cessna aircraft crash on September 30, 2001, while traveling to Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh to address a public rally.

August 1988: President of Pakistan, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq was a military officer and the sixth President of Pakistan from 1978 to 1988. He also served as the second chief of the army staff of the Pakistan Army from 1 March 1976 until his death.

He died in a plane crash on 17th August 1988. After witnessing a US M1 Abram tank demonstration in Bahawalpur, Zia left the city in the Punjab province by C-130B Hercules aircraft.Shortly after a smooth takeoff, the control tower lost contact with the aircraft.

June 1987: Prime Minister of Lebanon, Rashid Karami

Prime Minister of Lebanon, Rashid Karami was killed on June 1, 1987, when a bomb exploded aboard a military helicopter. The Interior Minister Abdullah Rassi and three of the other 12 aides and crewmen on the aircraft were injured in the incident.

Karami’s helicopter was halfway between his summer residence in Bqaa Safrine and Beirut, 60 miles to the south when the explosion ripped through the aircraft.

October 1986: Mozambique president Samora Machel

President of Mozambique and the socialist leader Samora Machel and many of his senior advisers were killed in a plane crash on the border with South Africa on October 19th, 1986.

The plane made a sudden direct turn straight into a range of mountains, and one of the air crash investigators at the scene, Dr. Alan Diehl told Rebecca Kesby there were reasons to suspect the plane was deliberately diverted off course.