The aircrew of the Mi-17 V5 that crashed on a mountainside during a rescue mission on Tuesday was led by Wing Commander Darryl Castelino, a resident of Barrackpore since being posted there last June. The tall, 39-year-old pilot from Mumbai was staying at an ITBP guesthouse in Gauchar, the forward operating base for the IAF in this rescue mission, and was forced out because of Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Gauchar and Guptkashi, sources have said at Gauchar. The Telegraph could not verify the version with local officials as most were preoccupied with relief operations. But guesthouses are usually emptied out for VIP entourages — one of the reasons disaster management specialists advise against a parade of visitors in affected areas. A qualified flying instructor commissioned into the helicopter stream of the IAF on June 20, 1998, Castelino was handpicked for the conversion to the V5 helicopters, 80 of which have been contracted by the air force. The 157 HU, the squadron to which he belonged, was newly raised and moved to Barrackpore as part of efforts to beef up military infrastructure in the east. Flight Lieutenant K. Praveen has a course mate here in the hills, Squadron Leader Dushyant Rathore. “He was an amazing guy,” Rathore said and walked away without wanting to talk any more. The 27-year-old Praveen was commissioned into the helicopter stream on June 27, 2009. In Tamil Nadu’s Madurai, Praveen’s hometown, his mother Manjula told PTI: “He was my only son. He spoke to me at 9.45am yesterday and told me he will be calling me again in the evening. But we received the call... .” Flight Lieutenant Tapan Kapoor, also aged 27, was commissioned into the aeronautical engineering (mechanical) stream on January 3, 2011. Junior Warrant Officer Akhilesh Kumar Singh and Sergeant Sudhakar Yadav, both aged 36, served in the air force from July 1996. The nine National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel, on deputation from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), had volunteered for the Kedarnath mission six days ago. When the force could not find enough experienced hands, the nine had stepped forward and cited their stint in Odisha after the supercyclone. Nishit Dholabhai in Gauchar and Sujan Dutta in New Delhi telegraphindia/1130627/jsp/frontpage/story_17053751.jsp#.Uc2FpFIayc3
Posted on: Fri, 28 Jun 2013 12:56:35 +0000
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