AAIB, DGCA teams to probe Uttarakhand helicopter crash

Teams of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau AAIB and aviation regulator DGCA will be probing the helicopter crash near Kedarnath in Uttarakhand that killed seven people on Tuesday according to a senior officialThe operator of the illfated helicopter Aryan Aviation had come under the regulatory scanner and was fined Rs 5 lakh recently by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation DGCA for certain violationsThe senior DGCA official said the teams of AAIB and DGCA have already left for the siteIt is an accident as per the classification of the International Civil Aviation Organisation ICAO and AAIB will be probing the case the official addedThe Directorate General of Civil Aviation DGCA will also be investigating the accidentThe chopper Bell 407 VTRPN operated by Aryan Aviation burst into flames at around 1145 am at Dev Darshini in Garud Chatti Rudraprayag District Disaster Management Officer Nandan Singh saidAlso read IN PHOTOS Pilot among 7 dead as helicopter crashes near KedarnathIn June this year the DGCA issued an advisory to helicopter operators flying on the Char Dham pilgrimage routes It came against the backdrop of an incident where a helicopter bounced and turned 270 degrees while landing at a Kedarnath helipad in MayAccording to the advisory pilots have to exercise caution for the presence of any tailwinds during approaches especially at the Kedarnath helipadPilots must take adequate precautions and if the tailwinds or crosswinds are beyond the permissible limits the approach must be abandoned and the chopper must return to the baseAlso adequate spacing must be maintained between the helicopters that are flying into the valley towards the Kedarnath helipad it had saidAccording to the DGCA the operators must ensure that the helicopter pilots are qualified and wellrested to undertake flight operationsThere was poor visibility during the Tuesday crash in which six pilgrims and a pilot were killed according to localsThe chopper hit a hillock amid dense fog and crashed within seconds after taking off near Garurchatti which is barely two km from Kedarnath Manohar Singh a security man deployed at Kedarnath helipad saidNothing was visible at once due to the thick blanket of fog enveloping the area but everyone ran in the direction from where a loud sound came he saidAs the fog thinned away the helicopter was seen in flames and its pieces were scattered all over the slopes of Garurchatti Singh saidOfficials identified the victims as Poorva Ramanuj 26 Kriti Brar 30 and Urvi Brar 25 from Gujarat and Sujata 56 Prem Kumar and Kala 60 from Tamil Nadu Pilot Anil Singh 57 hailed from MaharashtraPresident Droupadi Murmu Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia condoled the loss of livesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever