vIndianz.com (Jan 23, 2010) — Hyderabad: A committee which investigated the deadly crash of the Andhra Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s helicopter has on Friday reported that the aircraft was not worthy when it was released for flight.
Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy was killed on September 2.
A report in ‘The Hindu’ said that both pilots of the twin-engined Bell 430 helicopter which crashed in the Nallamala Hills of Andhra Pradesh on September 2 last year killing never thought it fit to return to Hyderabad or divert the copter to a nearby location despite the inclement weather.
‘The Hindu’ report said the pilots were hopeful of some improvement after they crossed the Krishna river at 9.20 a.m., 42 minutes after take-off from Begumpet airport but the weather never cleared. Five minutes later, there were repeated ‘callouts’ from the co-pilot “Go Around,” thereby indicating some problem – a hill feature in the vicinity. But, it was too late.
Technical data gleaned from the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) or the ‘black box’ during the last 14 seconds showed that the rate of descent was over 10,000 feet a minute, pointing to failure of critical systems — the main rotor and the power turbine were going too fast while the torque was dropping.
The poor judgment shown by Pilot Capt. S.K. Bhatia and Co-pilot M.S. Reddy is among the significant causes pinpointed by the four-member enquiry committee constituted by the Centre with Pawan Hans CMD R.K. Tyagi as chairman. They encountered a snag in the transmission of oil pressure. They got so engrossed in the emergency checklist to resolve the snag for a vital six minutes that they “lost situational awareness of the extreme bad weather ahead.”
Capt. Bhatia and Capt. Reddy drew more flak in the Tyagi Committee’s 139-page report.
In a significant conclusion, ‘The Hindu’ quoted the report as saying: “The helicopter was not airworthy when it was released for flight on September 2, even though this was not a contributory factor to the accident.”
Yet, the Certificate of Airworthiness of the helicopter was current and valid. Also, the A.P. Aviation Corporation Limited did not maintain any snag register to allow analysis of the defects. Besides, when the two engines were swapped on May 30, 2009, the reasons for their removal were not recorded in the log book indicating “the casual attitude of the maintenance personnel.”
Further Reading- Pilots call for snag-free aircraft – Times of India
- Chiranjeevi slams Kiran Reddy over money for farmers – NDTV.com
- YSR’s brother resigns as minister – NDTV.com
- Telangana matter: Andhra Pradesh assembly adjourned until further notice
- YSR’s brother among 39 AP ministers sworn in – Sify
- Jagan Reddy names new party YSR Party – NDTV.com
- No divisions in Congress on Telangana, says Kiran Kumar – The Hindu
- New Andhra Cabinet sworn-in, Jagan loyalists axed – Hindustan Times
- Four killed as BSF copter crashes in Rajasthan – Times of India
- PM holds meet on Telangana issue; report likely tomorrow – Economic Times
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