With over 300 fleet of Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopters (ALHs) temporarily grounded following January 5 crash which killed 3 onboard crew members, manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) said a Board of Inquiry is going on but the initial probe found out that prima facie there is no issue with engine and avionics.

But, the top brass of Navratna Defence PSU HAL have conveyed to operator armed forces—Indian Army, Indian Air Force, Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guards—that they will take a call on Friday whether to allow entire ALH fleet to become airborne again or wait for the outcome of further investigation, if required, to get into the bottom of the accident.

At the site

A team of investigators is already at the site in Coast Guard Air Enclave in Porbandar, Gujarat, where ALH Mark-III of the Indian Coast Guard (ICG), which was on a training sortie, crashed on January 5.

The ALH went for a training sortie for an-hour-and-half and returned to land safely at their base in Porbandar that day. But, when it took off again for second flight, the copter crashed, HAL officials aware of developments stated.

The next step

The Board of Inquiry, top sources in HAL said, are analysing the Flight Data Recorder (FDR), which records functioning of engine and avionics, and the next step, if needed, would be to look into the transmission system of the Dhruv for complete analysis.

Prima facie, HAL has been told that the major systems were ok but if there is something more complicated then the ALH will be brought to its Bengaluru manufacturing and maintenance facility for threadbare inspection and repair.

Reacting to different theories being pedalled in social media and other platforms, HAL top sources clarified that successive audit findings of incidents, from domestic as well as independent international bodies, have cleared that there is no issue with design or air frame or engine or avionics of the Dhruv.

Low accident rate

Since 2004, Dhruv has done 4.5 lakh hours of flying. HAL sources said the accident rate of ALH is less in comparison to that of global yardstick.

The ALH recorded 6.5 incidents per lakh hours of flying while globally it’s 7.5 incidents per lakh hours of flying, HAL sources stated in defence of their safety record.

In the last two decades from 2004, ALH has been involved in nine major accidents. Of that, three happened due to technical reasons and another three due to human error.

Of the different users of the Dhruv, Coast Guard seems to have been found wanting on their performance and maintenance, which the HAL is trying to fix.

IAF record

On the other hand, the IAF record is much better, believe HAL officials, given their rigorous method of training, well defined SoPs, and intense data analysis.

In September, last year, a Coast Guard’s ALH Mk-III crashed into the Arabian Sea during a night medical evacuation mission from a moving a ship, leading to three fatalities.

Now the HAL has decided to have more fleet meetings with respective operators to know their observations for improving on documentation and flying training.

Many a times, HAL officials have observed that pilots take risks that are not warranted.

HAL CMD Dr DK Sunil is believed to have directed his Chief Test Pilot of the Dhruv to interact with the ICG to find out what changes including in training module, needs to be done for improved safer flying.

After the incident, the HAL CMD constituted an independent committee headed by Air Marshal (retired) Vibhas Pande which gave its findings that the defence PSU is tying to implement.

Before that in March 2023, again an ALH of the Coast Guard crashed shortly after taking off in Kochi. A forensic audit of that accident revealed that a rod was wrongly fixed which lead to the mishap. Another sortie carrying VIP passengers was aborted due to timely detection of the same problem.

In 2022, the ALH faced technical problem of using an aluminium rod in control system which was subsequently replaced with a steel rod in the entire fleet operated by services.

In one of the global review, Netherland’s independent lab, NLR, said that there are no issues with the design of the copter, said HAL sources.