New Delhi: From mothers, to wives, and young children, the wails and cries seem to be unending for the families of the 10 personnel of the Border Security Force who lost their lives in a plane crash in Dwarka in Delhi. It has been over 24 hours since the 10 men died in the crash, but their families are inconsolable.
In a sombre ceremony, attended by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and several others at the Safdurjung airport, the BSF personnel were paid last respects by laying wreaths on their mortal remains. Their last rites will take place later in the day.
As Singh went up to meet the families of the victims, he was surrounded by a plethora of questions over the reasons of the crash. The words of support and sympathy from the Home Minister clearly did not seem to placate the ones who had lost their family members in this fatal crash.
The 10 personnel who died on Tuesday were chief pilot and Deputy Commandant Bhagwati Prasad Bhatt of BSF, Rajesh Shivrain, co-pilot and second-in-command of paramilitary SSB, Deputy Commandant D Kumar, Inspectors Raghvendra Kumar Yadav and SN Sharma, Sub-Inspectors Ravindra Kumar, Surendra Singh, CL Sharma, ASI DP Chauhan and Constable KR Rawat.
Raghvendra Kumar Yadav, one of the victims, belonged to Kanpur but was living with his wife and two children in Ghaziabad. The BSF inspector belonged to Adarshnagar in Chakeri area of the city, where his 82-year-old mother and brother Ramakant along with other family members live.
Another victim of the tragic accident, Rajesh Shivrain, belonged to Jind district in Haryana. The co-pilot of the ill-fated aircraft had spent his early days in Mumbai and later at his ancestral village in Hisar district of Haryana. Shivrain's father was an officer in the Indian Navy.
The 10 personnel who died on Tuesday, were some of BSF's most experienced men. The three officers and other technicians and engineers flying the lone 1995 vintage Superking B-200 of the BSF were also trained to handle the most modern asset the force has inducted recently in its inventory - the Mi-17 V5.
Officials say that the crash in Dwarka has come as the biggest ever hit to this small unit which has about 30 flying machines, including helicopters and fixed wing aircrafts, and about 200 personnel.
The ten-seater Ranchi-bound twin-engine Superking B-200 carrying BSF personnel and technicians crashed between 9:40-9:45 AM killing all ten men on board. The ill-fated plane took a turn after taking off at around 9.37 AM and hit a tree while apparently approaching to land following a possible technical problem.
Thereafter, it flew over the railway line and crashed onto the boundary of a sewage treatment plant on the periphery of the airport premises. It was blown to smithereens by the impact of the crash and there was hardly any wreckage left to salvage from.
Two bodies - of the pilot and the co-pilot - were partially burnt while other eight bodies showed only injuries but no burning.
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