The tragic death of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy in a helicopter crash should open everyone’s eyes to the dangers associated with small private planes and helicopters. Mr Reddy’s death was preceded by those of Congress politician Madhavrao Scindia, Lok Sabha Speaker GMC Balayogi, industrialist OP Jindal and Haryana Agriculture Minister Surender Singh. Not all crashes have been fatal, and the people who have survived crashes in small aircraft or helicopters include the businessmen Vijay Mallya and KP Singh. By way of contrast, the safety associated with commercial airlines has improved over the years. The only accident involving a private Indian commercial airline was when a Sahara jet crashed on a training flight over a decade ago. Air India had three crashes between 1978 and 1985 (the last being the blowing up of Emperor Kanishka); in the quarter-century since then, there has been no fatal crash. For the erstwhile Indian Airlines, the last fatal crash involved its subsidiary, Alliance Air, at Patna in 2000. Interestingly, Indian Airlines had no fewer than six crashes in the 1970s, and quite a few more till 1992, after which there have been no fatal accidents. The question is how to make flying in helicopters and small aircraft as safe as commercial jets.
The late chief minister’s helicopter, a Bell 430, was a twin-engine machine. Though single-engine choppers are going out of fashion worldwide, for understandable reasons, several VIPs in India are still willing to use one-engine machines—something that should be discouraged, if not banned. Similarly, while everyone knows that flying a helicopter, even a two-engine one, in treacherous weather is asking for trouble, pilots are often pressured into taking unsafe decisions. Indeed, many helicopter pilots are not fully trained to undertake instrument-based flying in bad weather, and it is worth noting that Mr Reddy’s helicopter took off in clear weather but then ran into cloudy conditions. Anil Ambani, to cite an example of a high-profile private sector individual, uses a helicopter to fly from his South Mumbai home to his office in the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC), outside the city, but commutes by road in the monsoon months. It is understandable that politicians are anxious to make the most use of their time, but safety has to come first always.
An area of concern relates to the air-worthiness of privately-maintained aircraft/helicopters. While only the investigation into the cause of the latest crash will reveal the facts, reports suggest the craft had developed technical snags on two recent occasions and had been removed from the chief minister’s detail — it was restored after the regular helicopter used was unavailable as it had gone for servicing. In some cases, it has been found that the aircraft used did not have the requisite safety certification. The onus for ensuring that their aircraft are airworthy lies with those who own them. Perhaps the DGCA can come up with a system to make available the details of the airworthiness of various craft at the press of a button. Anyone chartering a helicopter would then be able to take an informed decision.
