India helicopter crash puts spotlight on aviation issues
Dorjee Khandu, chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh state, and four others are killed in a helicopter crash, three weeks after the same operator had a crash killing 17. Also, in recent weeks, several airline pilots have been discovered with forged credentials.
A top state official from northeastern India was found dead Wednesday after his helicopter went down several days ago in rough weather, the latest setback for the nation's troubled civil aviation industry.
"I am afraid the news is grim and sad," Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram told reporters after the bodies of Dorjee Khandu, the chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh state, and four others were found following an extensive search.
The state-owned operator, Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd., suffered another accident three weeks ago that killed 17 people when their helicopter crashed into a landing pad in the perilous 11,000-foot-high Tawang Valley area of Arunachal Pradesh bordering China. Critics said many of the victims would have survived if fire engines and mandatory emergency equipment were readily available.
Information compiled by the New Delhi-based Rotary Wing Society of India, a watchdog group, found that most of the nation's 60 helicopter accidents between 1990 and 2011 involved violations of standard operating procedure.
Helicopter flights aren't the only ones in the spotlight. In recent weeks, several commercial airline pilots have been discovered to have doctored licenses.
This followed a Jan. 11 accident in which Indigo Airlines Capt. Parminder Kaur Gulati landed her aircraft in the resort area of Goa on its nose wheel rather than its rear landing gear. Further investigation found she had submitted fake test results to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, India's aviation regulator, after failing her exam seven times.
Indigo Airlines is considered one of India's best domestic budget carriers.
It soon turned out several other pilots had allegedly misrepresented their credentials as well, leading to the arrest of eight pilots, three civil aviation officials and three middlemen.
The most embarrassing case involved Garima Passi, the daughter of the regulatory agency's No. 2 official, the director for air safety. After failing to obtain a U.S. pilot's license because of two "landing incidents," she obtained a license using falsified Indian credentials. The airline she worked for, SpiceJet, later filed a written complaint saying it had been pressured by her father into hiring her. He has since been "relieved of his duties."
Nine other middle- and senior-level aviation bureaucrats are being investigated over how their close relatives received pilot licenses.
The state-owned operator, Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd., suffered another accident three weeks ago that killed 17 people when their helicopter crashed into a landing pad in the perilous 11,000-foot-high Tawang Valley area of Arunachal Pradesh bordering China. Critics said many of the victims would have survived if fire engines and mandatory emergency equipment were readily available.
Information compiled by the New Delhi-based Rotary Wing Society of India, a watchdog group, found that most of the nation's 60 helicopter accidents between 1990 and 2011 involved violations of standard operating procedure.
Helicopter flights aren't the only ones in the spotlight. In recent weeks, several commercial airline pilots have been discovered to have doctored licenses.
This followed a Jan. 11 accident in which Indigo Airlines Capt. Parminder Kaur Gulati landed her aircraft in the resort area of Goa on its nose wheel rather than its rear landing gear. Further investigation found she had submitted fake test results to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, India's aviation regulator, after failing her exam seven times.
Indigo Airlines is considered one of India's best domestic budget carriers.
It soon turned out several other pilots had allegedly misrepresented their credentials as well, leading to the arrest of eight pilots, three civil aviation officials and three middlemen.
The most embarrassing case involved Garima Passi, the daughter of the regulatory agency's No. 2 official, the director for air safety. After failing to obtain a U.S. pilot's license because of two "landing incidents," she obtained a license using falsified Indian credentials. The airline she worked for, SpiceJet, later filed a written complaint saying it had been pressured by her father into hiring her. He has since been "relieved of his duties."
Nine other middle- and senior-level aviation bureaucrats are being investigated over how their close relatives received pilot licenses.
