Two Indian Coast Guard pilots and an aircrew diver have been killed on Sunday in a Dhruv superior mild helicopter (ALH) crash at Porbandar in Gujarat, the most recent in a collection of accidents involving the regionally produced chopper, which put the highlight again on its troubling security report.
“An ALH Mk-III of the ICG met with an accident at Porbandar airport runway in Gujarat at 1215 hrs on January 05, 2025. The ICG helicopter, with two pilots and one aircrew diver, was on a routine coaching sortie. The crew have been shifted to Authorities Hospital, Porbandar, the place they have been declared introduced useless,” the defence ministry stated in an announcement.
The coast guard recognized the crew as Commandant Saurabh, Deputy Commandant SK Yadav and Pradhan Navik Manoj. It has ordered a board of inquiry to seek out out what led to the accident.
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This was the second crash involving the ICG’s ALH Mk-III in 4 months. Then too, two pilots and an aircrew diver have been killed after their helicopter crashed into the Arabian Sea close to Porbandar on September 2.
Within the newest accident, the ALH was coming back from a routine sortie and crashed whereas making an attempt to land on the runway of the airport, Superintendent of Police Bhagirathsinh Jadeja advised HT.
“The chopper caught fireplace and three crew members together with two pilots and one diver couldn’t survive,” he stated.
The coast guard ordered a one-time security inspection of its ALH fleet after the September 2 mishap, with deal with flying controls and transmission system. The fleet was then briefly grounded (it isn’t unusual for fleets to be grounded for security checks.)
The coast guard operates 16 ALHs, designed and developed by Bengaluru-based plane maker Hindustan Aeronautics Restricted (HAL).
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The army’s Dhruv fleet, suffering from a nagging design problem, was grounded a number of instances in 2023 too after a number of accidents known as into query its flight security report.
This led to a complete design overview, first reported by HT, of the helicopter’s booster management rods adopted by a drive to interchange the flaw-ridden current ones with new rods in every ALH. The armed forces function round 330 twin-engine ALHs.
These rods enable pilots to regulate the helicopter’s movement, and any failure can severely have an effect on energy enter to the rotor blades and trigger accidents.
Substitute of the collective management rod and the opposite two rods (lateral and longitudinal) has been accomplished on all army ALHs. The brand new rods are product of metal as an alternative of aluminium.
The multi-mission helicopter has been concerned in round 15 accidents over the last 5 years. HT highlighted the design problem and steps taken to repair it in a collection of tales.
A high authorities regulatory physique accountable for the certification of the airworthiness of army plane ordered the design overview in April 2023. The Bengaluru-based Centre for Navy Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC) ordered the design overview of the booster management rods to enhance the ALH’s airworthiness.
