1. The Prime Minister, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval will be at the Palam base to receive the bodies. The C130-J Super Hercules transport aircraft carrying the bodies is expected to land after 8 pm, according to news agency ANI.

2. PM Modi is likely to reach an hour later. Some family members of the Air Force personnel killed in the crash will also be present, ANI said. One of those who died was a Brigadier set for promotion, a Junior Warrant Officer praised for helping people during floods in Kerala, and a Lance Naik who called home to his wife on the morning of his death.

3. Earlier today one of the vehicles carrying the 13 bodies met with a minor accident near Mettupalayam in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore district. The vehicles were transporting the bodies to the Sulur Air Force base in Coimbatore, from where they will be flown to Delhi.

4. In visuals shared by ANI, a large crowd of locals had gathered to welcome the convoy as it reached the Sulur base. People were seen shouting ‘Bharat Mata ki jai‘ and showering the road with flower petals as the string of vehicles turned into the base compound.

5. Also today, the ‘black box’, or flight data recorder, of the crashed chopper was recovered. The data will be examined as part of the high-level, tri-services inquiry ordered by the Air Force. The inquiry will be lead Air Marshal Manvendra Singh, Mr Singh told Parliament.

6. Group Captain Singh – the sole survivor – was being treated at the military hospital in Wellington. He has been airlifted to the Air Force’s Command Hospital in Bengaluru. Group Captain Singh is stable but remains in critical condition, officials have said.

7. Gen Bipin Rawat, India’s first Chief of Defence Staff, will be cremated with full military honours Friday, as will all those who died. The bodies of Gen Rawat and his wife, Madhulika Rawat, will be taken to the Army hospital in Delhi’s Dhaula Kuan this evening.

8. Condolence messages have come from the US, China, Nepal, the UK, Russia, Australia, France, Israel, and Japan. President Ram Nath Kovind said “the nation has lost one of its bravest sons” and Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Gen Rawat an “outstanding soldier”. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh called his death an “irreparable loss”.

9. The Mi-17V5 Air Force chopper – described as “the workhorse of the Air Force” and widely seen as a stable aircraft, carrying Gen Rawat crashed after it took off from Sulur. The General was on his way to the Defence Staff Services Colleges in Wellington. Group Captain Singh had gone to Sulur from Wellington to receive Gen Rawat.

10. Unverified footage emerged this morning of a chopper flying in the area; the clip, shared by ANI, shows the aircraft flying low and disappearing into the mist. An eyewitness asks, “Did it crash?”, to which another says “Yes”. The chopper took off at 11.48 am and was reported missing at 12.08 pm.

With input from ANI