The pilots of the ill-fated army’s Rudra advanced light (ALH) helicopter had sounded ‘May Day’ or SOS distress call before it crashed on Thursday in Arunachal Pradesh. Rescue teams recovered all five bodies onboard the helicopter in a 48-hour operation ending Saturday.
Giving details of the accident of the twin-engine Rudra ALH WSI based at Likabali (Assam) crashed at general area Migging (South of Tuting in Arunachal Pradesh) which took place at 10.43 am on Thursday, Army sources said here on Saturday both the pilots were highly experienced and trained. Prior to the crash, the Air Traffic Control (ATC) had received a MAY DAY call suggesting a technical or mechanical failure, they said. The ‘May Day’ call is made in an emergency. Officials also said weather conditions were good for flying operations. Both these factors will form the focus of the probe.
The two pilots had more than 600 combined flying hours on ALH-WSI and over 1,800 service flying hours between them. The Rudra advanced light helicopter was inducted into service in June 2015, they added.
The mandatory court of inquiry to find out the cause of mishap was ordered. The deceased personnel were identified as pilots Major Vikas Bhambhu and Major Mustafa Bohara, Aswin K V, Biresh Sinha and Rohitashva Kumar.
After the crash, immediate joint search operations with teams from the Army and Airforce located the site, where the terrain was extremely challenging in terms of hills and thick jungle.
There were five personnel on onboard when the mishap took place. Four mortal remains were retrieved on Friday while the last victim was found on Saturday.
This is the second incident of an Army helicopter accident in the state this month. A Cheetah helicopter crashed in Tawang district on October 5, killing one of the two pilots onboard.
Another Cheetah helicopter crashed in March near the Line of Control(LOC) in Jammu and Kashmir. The pilot died in this incident, too.
Rudra is a twin-engine attack helicopter manufactured by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Indian Army. It is the Weapon System Integrated (WSI) Mk-IV variant of the Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH).
It is a multi-role, multi-mission new generation helicopter in the 5.5-ton weight class” and is seen as the workhorse of the Army.
Inducted in 2002, over 400 of the helicopters including weaponised version known as ALH Rudra are now in service.
According to HAL, as of January this year, more than 335 Dhruvs have been produced, logging around 3,40,000 cumulative flying hours. The Army and IAF operate about 90 Rudras in total, which were inducted in 2013.
Twenty three of Dhruv/Rudra have met with accidents claiming lives of several personnel on board, besides making scores of emergency landings.
In October 2019, a Dhruv helicopter of the Indian Army carrying the then Chief of the Northern Command Lt General Ranbir Singh and other senior officers had crash landed in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch.