HAL Chief Test Pilot Commits Suicide

[Water Car Engineer]

HAL Chief Test Pilot Commits Suicide


Shocking news. HAL's chief test pilot (fixed wing) and recently made Director (Corporate Planning & Marketing) Squadron Leader (Retd) Baldev Singh was found dead this morning. Possible suicide. He was apparently on holiday in Karnataka's Nandi Hills, where his body was found. More details shortly. R.I.P.

An official profile released recently: Sqn Ldr Singh took over as Director (Corporate Planning & Marketing) at HAL in August. Before that, he was Executive Director Flight Operations and the Chief Test Pilot (Fixed Wing) at HAL's Bangalore Complex.

Singh was involved with the LCA Programme from 1990 onwards and was deputed to the Aeronautical Development Agency for this purpose. On the LCA programme he worked extensively on the development and flight testing of the flight control laws of the Light Combat aircraft. He carried out the flight evaluation of these flight control laws at the Real Time simulator at BAE Wharton in UK followed by the flight evaluation of these control laws on the F-16, Lear Jet and NT-33 aircraft in the US.

Singh had extensive test flying experience on five prototype programmes and carried out the first flights of the HANSA aircraft and the Intermediate Jet Trainer. He has a Total Flight Test Experience of over 6000 hrs on over 55 different types of aircraft. He is a Qualified Flying Instructor and holds a diploma in Aviation Flight Safety from the Naval Post Graduate College, Monterey Bay, California, USA.

He joined the National Defence Academy in 1970 and graduated from the academy in December 1972 and was commissioned into the Indian Air Force in June 1973 as a fighter pilot.

After doing operational flying on Hunter, MiG-21 and MiG-23 aircraft, he qualified as a Flight Instructor in July 1983, and was posted to Air Force Academy at Hyderabad for Instructional Flying Duties on the Kiran Aircraft. In 1984 he did his experimental test pilots course and was deputed to HAL in 1986. He retired from the Indian Air Force in 1989 and joined HAL.

Many people will recognize him from this video.


Quite sad and shocking..


R.I.P

 

[angeldemon_007]

Last i heard he got a huge promotion then why commit suicide ?

 

[Safriz]

sounds fishy...
no matter what happened of the doomed LCA. he on personal level was an acvomplished and succesful person...and highly unlikely to commit suicide.

 

[IndoCarib]

It is suicide. Nothing fishy here

Squadron Leader (retd) Baldev Singh, director for corporate planning and marketing at state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) committed suicide at Nandi Hills, about 50 km from Bangalore, police said on Tuesday. The 58-year-old Baldev Singh "was found hanging by a tree around noon by passersby near Mirza Circle on the way to Nandi Hills and alerted us," Chickballapur Rural Deputy Superintendent of Police S Chelvaraj told IANS.

"We lowered the body from the tree and identified him to be Baldev Singh of HAL from the credit and debit cards he was carrying in pocket," he said.

Confirming the tragic death of the company’s former chief test pilot and executive director of flight operations, HAL chairman Ashok Nayak said it was too early to say what forced him to take such the extreme step.

"I have no details on what led him to do this, as I am in Delhi. He has been very good at work and I have known him for long as he was our chief test pilot and executive director of flight operations. It is very unfortunate and a great loss to us as he was recently appointed director," Nayak told IANS.

According to the first information report (FIR) filed by police, Baldev Singh left home around 9 am in the official car and told his driver Rajesh to go to the Bangalore international airport at Devanahalli.

"At a flyover, he told the driver to alight and wait for him and drove the car himself towards Nandi hills saying he had to pick up a friend on the way. When there was no sign of Baldev Singh or response from him till noon, a worried driver reported the matter to the corporate office," Chelvaraj said, quoting from the FIR.

In what appeared to be a pre-meditate move, Baldev Singh took away the driver’s mobile handset saying his phone was not working and asked him to wait near the flyover till he returned.

“On receiving a call from HAL office about one of their directors (Baldev Singh) missing in the area, we sent a wireless message to all the police stations in our jurisdiction and rushed a search party to Nandi hills,” Chelvarj said.

Baldev Singh leaves behind his wife Vibhu and two sons Mohit Singh and Nimit Singh. Mohit lives in Singapore and Nimit in the US. His wife has been ailing for some time.

HAL director Baldev Singh commits suicide - Hindustan Times

Now let this great soul rest in peace

 

[Abingdonboy]

So, sad. One thing about depression is it is almost impossible to identify from the outside no matter how successful or content one may appear. Any number of things could have caused him depression both personal and professional and it would be wrong and disrespectful for us to speculate what that could have been. This man was a great servant to his nation and did much for her, let us not tarnish his image.

Re-watching the YT vid of "discovery atlas:India" on IJT (above) where he is shown doing what he loved really made me sad to see him in his element only to know what was to transpire of him not long after.

RIP dear sir, my heart truly aches.

 

[LiberalAtheist]

i was shocked to hear this news there has to be foul play in this but anyways RIP

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

who were his enemies or opponents.....should be looked at from all angles

 

[Novice09]

Russian airforce aint using su-30... should i believe its crap?

We are not using Su 30... its Su 30 MKI... your belief about Su 30 MKI is not required at all... someone with Pakistani flag dragged the Tejas into this thread to have cheap shot... or might be done intentionally to troll...

Topic is 'HAL Chief Test Pilot Commits Suicide' and we should stick to the topic instead of letting our mind to wander on PDF...

 

[Ammyy]

Russian airforce aint using su-30... should i believe its crap?

Who told you this nonsense ???

 

[SpArK]

RIP.. the stressed one..

 

[marcos98]

Please for god's sake, a person died.
Have some shame, cribbing like juveniles.

RIP Baldy.

 

[Imran Khan]

SO sad rip to officer hope police will investigate the matter completely and bring out reason behind this sad incident .

 

[LiberalAtheist]

Suicide rate in the indian forces is quiet high... factors might be related to lca prog..

Most likely He Realized what a piece of crap LCA Tejas is.

really? are you guys serious? this man had a wife and 2 sons and you come here to troll? you trolls should be ashamed of yourselves what if this was your father?

 

[MilSpec]

Suicide rate in the indian forces is quiet high... factors might be related to lca prog..

Being familiar with your earlier posts, couldn't have expected anything better , but dragging your JF17 and LCA BS into someone's loss must be an all time low, even for you... RIP Baldev Singh, it's a tragic loss

 

[Windjammer]

The poor guy had his fair share of misfortunes.


SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2007

The Needless IJT Incident of February 8
If reports suggesting that the accident involving an indigenous Intermediate Jet Trainer (IJT) on February 8 at Yelahanka were caused by the pilot’s carelessness – he reportedly forgot to safely secure the aircraft’s canopy – are correct, then this has to stand as the most needless and unfortunate upset to budding aspirations of Indian defence export.

And for Sqn Ldr (retd) Baldev “Baldy” Singh, HAL’s chief fixed wing test pilot and the man who was behind the stick on the IJT’s first flight on March 7, 2003, it’s a little worse. But to understand just how inopportune February 8 was for HAL, things have to be wound back just a little bit.

In 1999, six years after the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) got its first programme extension, HAL made an inspired proposition to the air force. It said it could build a fine stage-two trainer to replace the HJT-16 Kiran. And those lessons from the LCA programme had emboldened HAL into suggesting that it could deliver results rapidly. From project sanction in July 1999 to a first flight in March 2003, the IJT made all promises a lush reality, much to the credit of HAL’s Aircraft Research & Design Center (ARDC).

In August 2005, HAL signed on Russia’s NPO Saturn to license build Al-551 jet engines for the IJT that will be commissioned into the IAF. These would give the IJT a markedly higher thrust to weight ratio than the French Lazarc engines that power the two prototypes. Reports suggest HAL intends to build at least 1,000 of the Russian powerplants at its Koraput, Orissa factory. HAL chairman Ashok Baweja wants to sell the IJT in West Asia, South East Asia and East Africa as a far cheaper proposition than European, American and Brazilian products.

Since the certainly worthy first-flight, the two IJT prototypes (PT-1 and PT-2) have logged about 300 flights so far and are gunning toward inductions into the IAF by early 2008. That’s an intended induction target of less than ten years from project sanction, and it cannot be ignored. And if one were to momentarily – fleetingly – set aside the initial consultations with Snecma and Smiths Aerospace, the IJT can be safely described as a true-blue Indian machine.

And that’s precisely why February 8 will go down as one of the most unneeded, redundant accidents in the history of HAL. The IJT’s canopy flew open, and pushed the jet careening to one side, exploding the starboard tyre and coming to a stop on its side, in front of thousands of spectators, potential foreign buyers and, probably most immediately importantly, our very armed forces.

How difficult will it be for HAL to convince them that the accident was caused by human oversight rather than any technological flaw? Very. Remember how the near-closed deal to sell ALH Dhruv helicopters to Chile dive-bombed after the November 2005 crash in Andhra Pradesh?

This is no elegy to shoddy technology. If there’s one thing that’s marked the IJT out, it is the aircraft’s incongruously clean development trajectory. And to destroy that by forgetting to close the canopy, while finally only human, is as near unforgivable as it can possibly get.


Livefist: The Needless IJT Incident of February 8