The helicopter proved its worth again during the Uttarakhand flood rescue-and-relief operations. But events of the last few days also highlighted the inadequate size of India’s civilian chopper fleet. This needs to change, says Kushan Mitra
Almost every journalist who has been to the Garhwal hills in the past few weeks in the aftermath of the horrible flash floods that inundated Kedarnath and its environs has taken a helicopter. Almost every pilgrim rescued from inaccessible reaches up in the mountains where road links were washed away has been rescued on a helicopter.
An idea whose basic principle dates back to ancient times, the taketombo spinning toy in Japan is the earliest known example of a spinning flat ‘wing’ providing lift. Famed renaissance inventor and artist leonardo Da Vinci drew several conceptual drawings for helicopters, rather helical air screws.
Despite the fact that the concept of the helicopter has been around for centuries, the first practical lift helicopter was built only in 1944. The legendary R-4 helicopter, built by Russian emigre Igor Sikorsky, was the only helicopter to see service in World War II. The US military quickly realised the worth of such a craft that could hover and did not require expensive runways to operate from.
Some of the first choppers, the nickname for helicopters coming almost as soon as the first few flew, operated in the India-Burma theatre in World War II, crossing inaccessible terrain in India’s Northeast and the Irrawaddy delta.
In the nearly 70 years since then, helicopters have become a tool of war. During America’s long, expensive and eventually fruitless campaign in Vietnam, olive-green helicopters became the symbol of America’s campaign. It was a picture of a helicopter leaving the US Embassy in Saigon that became the iconic image of America’s failure in Southeast Asia. Even in India, helicopters are the only reason India has successfully stalled Pakistani aggression on the Siachen glacier. To think of a war or any military operation nowadays without the extensive use of choppers is almost impossible.
Yet, helicopters have gone far beyond military use in most parts of the world. Despite helicopters being inherently inefficient when compared to fixed wing aircraft, their abilities to hover over a single spot, turn on a dime and operate from almost anywhere have made them popular with police forces, emergency medical services, TV stations, sightseeing operators and even business executives.
While in the United States today there are an estimated 11,000 helicopters in the civilian space (non-military, including police helicopters), in India there are 300-odd civil helicopters, most of them small and some aging craft. The lack of a clear policy for helicopters has prevented the import of these vital aircraft into India. Take emergency medical services (EMS), most countries in the world have EMS air ambulances, several of them. In India, there is believed to be just one. Patients being transported during rush hour have little or no chance of beating the traffic, yet a helicopter might take just minutes.
It is not just a policy for helicopters, the ‘security’ bogey that is raised by police forces, who themselves do not have helicopters unlike police forces across the world, has prevented the use of helicopters effectively as transport aircraft, although VIP services do exist from Bangalore and Mumbai airports to points downtown in these cities.
For example, a road journey between Delhi and Haridwar that takes seven-eight hours can be cut back to under an hour in a helicopter. Even Mumbai-Nashik or Bangalore-Mysore can be effectively served to those who can afford them by helicopters.
For close transportation on distances below 400 kilometers, or around 90 minutes of flying time, the helicopter is almost always the quickest and best option. This has been demonstrated best by the helicopter service at the Vaishno Devi shrine, where helicopters, albeit pricey, allow pilgrims to avoid a several hour-long climb with a ride of a few minutes.
Helicopters are also vital in internal security, a crisis that India is facing today. As mentioned before, none of India’s large metropolitan area police forces have helicopters. In many other countries helicopters have played a vital role in urban security. Criminals can hide in dark alleys and lose the police forces chasing them on the ground, but advanced helicopters with thermal image scanning and spotlights can keep their eye on the ground even on dark nights.
In areas impacted by Naxal terrorists, helicopters can play a vital role in transporting paramilitary forces to camps, avoiding deadly ambushes. And while helicopters can be shot down, they provide a platform for spotting and operations that are far superior to current options.
A lack of a civil helicopter fleet has forced politicos and senior officials to travel by road and become susceptible to attack by terrorists. Helicopters in the early hours of the 26/11 attack by Pakistani terrorists might have helped the Mumbai Police combat the situation better.
Air Vice-Marshal (retired) Arvind Walia, who represents Sikorsky helicopters, a part of United Technologies, in India says, “The city of Sao Paulo in Brazil has more helicopters than the whole of India.” This fact would be laughable if it was not true. In fact, Walia sees the opportunity for helicopters, both military and civil, in India to be upwards of 1,500 new aircraft over the next two decades, “and that is a conservative number if the Government opens up the acquisition route.”
The Air Force with its fleet of helicopters and the Army Aviation Corps with smaller helicopters cannot be stretched every time there is a natural disaster. India is a large country and there will always be a natural or man-made disaster of some sort. In addition, the helicopter acquisition process in India has been held back due to allegations and counter-allegations of corruption. Even deals that have gone through such as the move to acquire AgustaWestland AW101 helicopters for VIP use find themselves mired in controversy.
A civilian fleet of choppers can be requisitioned, as it has in Uttarakhand to aid relief operations. If more helicopters had been available in Dehradun, maybe the relief operations could have been conducted faster. Who knows how many people might have died because relief and rescue reached too late.
Helicopters can go wrong, as the tragic accident of an Indian Air Force Mil-17 helicopter during rescue operations in Uttarakhand proved. Yet, without the tremendous bravery and skill of helicopter pilots, both military and civil, the situation in Uttarakhand would have been much worse.
The helicopter is a vital tool in a huge country like India with its terrain and urban centres. Why we have not used it to its maximum ability until now remains a mystery.