‘Take care of my daughter’: Last words of pilot killed in helicopter crash
A National Defence Academy (NDA) graduate of 1967, Singh was known to friends and family as ‘Ansi’, which was also his flying name. He lived in a posh housing society in the Andheri suburb of Mumbai and is survived by his wife Shirin Anandita and daughter Firoza Singh.
Anil Singh, who was flying the helicopter which crashed into a hill in Uttarakhand due to poor visibility on Tuesday, was among the seven people killed in the tragic incident. "Take care of my daughter. She is unwell,'' Singh, 57, a retired Indian Army Colonel, had told his wife a day before the tragic incident.
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A National Defence Academy (NDA) graduate of 1967, Singh was known to friends and family as ‘Ansi’, which was also his flying name. He lived in a posh housing society in the Andheri suburb of Mumbai and is survived by his wife Shirin Anandita and daughter Firoza Singh. “I spoke to him yesterday (Monday) at 5:46 pm. We chatted for about 15 minutes about mundane things. Our daughter hasn’t been feeling very well, and he was inquiring about her health,” said his wife, a writer and Grammy-nominated lyricist.
The six-seater chopper Bell-407 (VT-RPN) - operated by Aryan Aviation - was ferrying the pilgrims from Kedarnath temple to Guptkashi when it crashed into a hill, bursting into flames at around 11.45am at Dev Darshini in Garud Chatti, Rudraprayag district, Disaster Management Officer Nandan Singh told news agency PTI.
Singh originally hailed from east Delhi's Shahadra but made Mumbai his home for the last 15 years. His wife expressed that she had no complaint against anyone as "an accident is an accident", adding that the hilly state always experiences inclement weather.
Teams of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) and aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will be probing the helicopter crash, according to a senior official.
The DGCA fined five helicopter operators, including Aryan aviation, ₹5 lakh each after a three-day audit conducted on June 13-16 found they were violating several rules.
(With inputs from PTI)
