The Army will conduct technical inspection of the entire fleet of its Dhruv advanced light helicopters in the wake of the crash in Kashmir on Wednesday killing two officers on board. At present, the Army has 60 helicopters and 16 helicopters have crashed since these helicopters were inducted into service in 2002.
Two pilots including lt-Colonel Rajesh Gulati and Major Tahir Khan were killed when their Dhruv helicopter crashed near Srinagar. The twin-engine helicopter weighing six tonnes manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics limited (HAl) was on a night training sortie and had taken off from Srinagar. A court of inquiry was ordered to ascertain the cause of accident.
Ruling out the possibility of grounding the entire fleet of these helicopters at present, sources said here on Thursday the Army engineers will inspect every helicopter in a phased manner in the next few days. These helicopters are used for reconnaissance and ferrying personnel in small numbers as it can carry seven people to inaccessible areas in Jammu & Kashmir and the North-East.
The latest crash comes in the backdrop of Ecuador restricting flying operations of its fleet of Dhruv last month after two helicopters crashed within a fortnight. HAl had exported seven helicopters to Ecuador in 2007 in a deal worth over $40 million. However, two helicopters met with mishaps some years back while two met with accident in early January.
HAl has sent teams of its engineers to Ecuador to find out the cause for latest mishaps and the Government has asked the PSU to set up spare parts depots there for speedy action to rectify any faults in the machine, officials said. The spate of accidents involving these indigenously manufactured helicopters have raised doubts over India’s export to other countries at a time when the present Government is going all out to promote ‘Make-in-India’ policy.
In India, the three Services are flying nearly 150 Dhruv helicopters since 2002 with Army accounting for 60. In July last year, two officers and five IAF personnel were killed in a crash in Sitapur, 70-km from lucknow. In 2013, a Dhruv crashed in Siachen glacier while another Army helicopter crashed in Sikkim in 2011 killing two pilots. The Services have grounded the entire fleet of Dhruvs on a couple of occasions in the past due to technical faults like heavier weight of the helicopter and low engine power.