Concerned over the recent crashes involving Cheetah and Chetak helicopters, a representative of wives of pilots flying them met Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar here on Wednesday and urged him to stop the use of these outdated choppers. Maintaining that he shared their anxiety, Parrikar assured them that the Government is according top priority to address the issue.
Incidentally, this is the second time in the last few years that concerned relatives of serving officers have met the top political leadership about outdated aircraft and helicopters. The mother of an IAF pilot, who was killed in a MIG-21 crash, had met then President Abdul Kalam to draw attention about the safety record of the ageing planes.
At present, there are 175 to 180 Cheetah and Chetak helicopters in service and they are more than 35 years old. These machines have nearly outlived their operational life and the three Services are in desperate need to replace them with state of the art light utility helicopters capable of flying at high altitude.
In this backdrop, Meenal Wagh-Bhosale, wife of a serving Major in the Indian Army, met Parrikar and handed him a petition which has received about 23,000 signatures online. She later said the minister was very understanding and said modernisation was a top priority for him. He assured the delegation that the government is taking steps to replace the Cheetah and Chetak helicopters, Bhosale said.
She said her group of 28 women who have launched this campaign, wanted the Government to acquire modern helicopters to avoid crashes and save valuable lives of pilots and other personnel. She noted that both Cheetah and Chetak have single engines unlike two in the modern models that make the latter more reliable in emergencies. The Ministry has been trying to procure new helicopters for the defence forces, including the Army Aviation since 2007, she said.
However, this proposed acquisition worth over Rs6,000 crore is jinxed as it had to be cancelled twice in the last seven years due to malpractices in the selection process of competing firms. The NDA government finally cancelled the proposal last year. The Government has now gone in for Make in India process for these helicopters wherein a domestic defence manufacturer will tie up with a foreign company to make these helicopters in India.
As regards the crashes involving these choppers, the last major crash happened on October 1 last year when a Cheetah belonging to the Army Aviation crashed in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly district, leading to the death of two pilots and an engineer.
last month, three Army personnel, including lt General Bipin Rawat, commander of the prestigious Spear Corps, had a lucky escape as a Cheetah helicopter carrying them crashed seconds after taking off from Rangapahar helipad in Nagaland’s Dimapur district.