India has a history of air crashes that killed top personalities and celebrities. Though the country has been a customer of sophisticated air technologies, the advancement and capabilities of the passenger and military carriers have always come under public scrutiny at every such crash, that tested the efficacy of the fleet in the defence system. The country had on Wednesday witnessed such a dreadful crash of the military chopper, that belonged to a model which labelled for its advanced technology and for transporting the VVIPs including the President and the Prime Minister. 

The crash has killed India's first Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat, who was on board along with his wife Madhulika Rawat, and top military officials. The accident has happened at 12.20 pm and he was travelling in a Mi-17V5 series chopper operated by the Indian Air Force. This type of chopper has been labelled as a sophisticated carrier that can whir against difficult and challenging weather conditions. India has over 150 choppers of such model in its defence fleet and they were mainly imported from Russia. 

The chopper, that was carrying 14 people, had crashed and charred. The Air Force has later confirmed that Bipin Rawat was one of the 13 people who were killed in the crash. As the questions rife over the security apparatus for the country's top military general, the Air Force had said that an inquiry has been ordered into an accident and Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has on Thursday said in the Parliament that the Indian Air Force has ordered a tri-service inquiry into the military chopper crash and the investigation will be led by Air Marshal Manavendra Singh. The nation is grieving for the loss of Rawat and let's take a look at some of the prominent Indian personalities who died in air crashes, 

Sanjay Gandhi: 

Sanjay Gandhi was the son of former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and veteran Congress leader. He was killed in an air crash on June 23, 1980, while flying a Pitts S-2A aircraft in Delhi. Sanjay Gandhi had held both a commercial pilot's licence and an instructor's rating, while his brother Rajiv Gandhi, who became the Prime Minister after Indira Gandhi, was an Indian Airlines pilot. 

Mohan Kumaramangalam: 

The veteran Congress leader and former Lok Sabha MP had died after the Indian Airlines flight he was travelling in crashed in Delhi on May 31, 1973. He died at the age of 56. Before joining the Congress, he was a member of the Communist Party of India and he also had served as Advocate-General for Madras State from 1966 to 1967.

Madhavarao Scindia: 

The veteran Congress leader from the prominent Scindia clan was flying to Kanpur when his chartered flight crashed in an Uttar Pradesh village in September 2001. He was 56-year-old when he died and his son Jyotiraditya Scindia is the current Union Minister of Civil Aviation. Junior Scindia was with the Congress party before he joined BJP one year back. Madhavarao Scindia had also served as the Union Minister of Railways, Tourism, and Civil Aviation during the Congress rule.

Surendra Nath: 

The then Punjab Governor was travelling to Kullu from Chandigarh in a 14-seater Beechcraft plane when it crashed in the Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh on July 9, 1994. 68-year-old Nath, who was a former IPS officer, had died along with nine of his family members. 

YS Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR): 

The father of current Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, YS Rajasekhara Reddy had died in a twin-engined Bell 430 helicopter crash in Nallamalla Hills of Andhra Pradesh in September 2009. At the time of his death, Rajasekhara Reddy was the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. The inquiry into the crash had later revealed that the helicopter was not air-worthy and poor judgments were made by the pilots. 

GMC Balayogi: 

Former Lok Sabha Speaker and Telugu Desam Party leader Balayogi had died in a chopper crash in the Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh on March 3, 2002. The accident was reported to have been caused due to a technical issue. 

Dorjee Khandu: 

Former Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh had died in a helicopter crash on April 30, 2011. The accident had happened around 30 kilometres away from Tawang near the Indo-China border and his body was recovered five days later. It also must be noted that ten years before, Arunachal Pradesh Minister Dera Natung and five others were killed when their Pawan Hans aircraft had crashed near Tawang in May 2001. 

Actress Soundarya: 

Actress-turned-politician Soundarya had died in an air crash on 17 April 2004. She was 31 at the time of death and as a member of the BJP, she was travelling to Karimnagar from Bangalore during an election campaign when the crash has happened.

OP Jindal and Surender Singh: 

Prominent industrialist OP Jindal, who was also the Haryana Electricity Minister then, had died in a chopper crash in March 2005. He was flying back to Chandigarh from Delhi along with the then state agriculture minister Surender Singh. Following the crash, both had died. 

General Bipin Rawat: 

India's four-star defence general, Bipin Rawat was killed in a military chopper crash on Wednesday -December 8 in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. Rawat, who served as India's first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), was on his way to deliver a lecture to the facilities and students in Defence Service Staff College in Wellington, the Nilgiris. He was on board a Mi-17V5 chopper along with his wife and other officials and minutes ahead of the touchdown, the chopper had crashed and hit the ground. Of the 14 people on board, 13 were confirmed dead including Bipin Rawat, while the sole survivor is getting treated at the Military Hospital in Wellington. The Indian Air Force has ordered an inquiry into the accident.