3 Coast Guard men killed as helicopter crashes in Gujarat | India News


NEW DELHI: Three Coast Guard personnel died after their Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) ‘Dhruv’ crashed in Porbandar, Gujarat on Sunday afternoon, raising questions once again over indigenous twin-engine helicopters who have been left on the ground several times after a chain. of accidents before.
The ALH Mark-III helicopter was returning from a routine training sortie when it reportedly developed some technical problem while landing at the Coast Guard Air Enclave in Porbandar, and crashed at around 12.15 pm The two pilots, the Commander Saurabh and Deputy Commander SK Yadav, and air crew diver Manoj Pradhan Navik were pulled out of the burning helicopter and rushed to the government hospital. “But they succumbed to their injuries. An inquiry commission will probe the reasons that led to the accident,” an official said.
The incident comes after another Coast Guard ALH crashed in the Arabian Sea during a medical evacuation operation in September last year, killing the two pilots and one crew diver. The armed forces’ entire fleet of around 330 ALHs was grounded several times in 2023 after four major accidents.
Defense helicopter manufacturer PSU Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) then undertook technical safety improvements after cases of design and metallurgical defects were reported in the helicopters, including “collective failure” that controls the power of the rotors and return.
First, an armed version of ALH called Rudra crashed in Arunachal Pradesh in October 2022, killing two officers and three soldiers. Then, there were two consecutive ALH accidents in March 2023. In May that year, another Army ALH Mark-III crashed in J&K’s Kishtwar district, killing one soldier and seriously injuring the two pilots.
The accidents sparked calls for a thorough investigation into the problems affecting the helicopter fleet because ALHs are the workhorses of the military and are critical in the current drive toward self-sufficiency in defense production. In addition, India also wants to export the 5.5-tonne helicopter in greater numbers in the coming years.





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