Mumbai chopper crash report within a week -Governance Now

Mumbai chopper crash report within a week

The DGCA does not have enough manpower to do safety audits, claims air safety expert

Geetanjali Minhas | December 12, 2016 | Mumbai

#DGCA #Mumbai #Helicopter crash #air safety

Four-seater Robinson R-44 helicopter

A two member team from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is conducting an investigation into a helicopter crash in Mumbai. A senior official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) told Governance Now that the results will be known after a week, when the investigations are over.

To a query if adequate air safety standards exist, the official said all safety standards exist, but these have to be followed.

The four-seater Robinson R-44 helicopter crashed into the hilly terrain of Aarey Colony in suburban Goregaon on Sunday morning, killing its pilot Praful Kumar Mishra (57) and injuring three others - Ritesh Modi (36) and his wife Vrinda Modi (33) and technician Sanjeev Shankar (24).

The chopper took off from Juhu Airport at 11.52 am with the Modi couple, residents of Borivali, who had booked a 15-minute ride.

According to officials of the Juhu Air Traffic Control (ATC), Mishra got in touch with them at 11.56 am and told them that he would have to crash-land the aircraft due to problems in its clutch. Juhu ATC officials said the chopper crashed exactly a minute later — at 11.57 am.

Speaking on safety measures, retired airline pilot and air safety expert, Mohan Ranganathan said, “There is a lot of cutting corners and DGCA just turns a blind eye. The directorate does not have proper manpower to do surveillance safety audits. People are just signing on dotted lines without properly completing the audits. This is a big problem.”

However, Rohit Kapoor, member, Business Aircraft Operators Association and MD Arrow Aircraft Sails and Charters Pvt Ltd, said that though safety measures are always in place, a technical snag can happen to any aircraft. “Here it seems the pilot had made a radio transmission contact. The investigations will reveal if it was a technical failure or something else.”

Aman Aviation had purchased the helicopter from Pawn Hans four years ago for commercial use. Apart from joyrides, Aman Aviation provides services for aerial advertisement, film shooting and geological surveys. The company charges between Rs 3,200 for a 10-minute ride and Rs 17,000 for 60 minutes per person for the joyrides.

Comments

Other News

People-to-people relations the real foundation of Indo-US friendship: Modi

On the second and last day of US president Donald Trump’s India visit, prime minister Narendra Modi said the real foundation of Indo-US friendship is people-to-people relations. Trump, meanwhile, sidestepped the contentious issues of the protests against the new citizenship law, telling a joint press

America loves India, America respects India: Trump

America loves India, America respects India, said US president Donald Trump as he and first lady Melania Trump began their short visit of India from Ahmedabad on Monday, welcomed by prime minister Narendra Modi. The US president was in Ahmedabad, in Modi`s home state of Gujarat, to attend th

2020 is crucial for CPSE: Arjun Ram Meghwal

"The year 2020 is going to be a significant year for India and especially for Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSE), "said the Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of State for heavy industries and public enterprises on Wednesday at the 7th PSU Awards and Conference organised by Governance Now on 19th

Vice President springs surprise, speaks in 22 languages

Highlighting the importance of preserving, protecting and promoting Indian languages, the vice president of India, Shri M Venkaiah Naidu spoke in 22 languages at an event to mark International Mother Language Day in New Delhi. He urged all the citizens to take a pledge to promote mother tongue and also lea

Title Insurance: new product for old issues

Real estate is among the priciest investments around. More so for the common man who has to live with the burden of monthly EMIs. Yet, it is an art to discover the real owner of any property. Government and revenue records, which are easily accessible to the public, are not properly maintained. Individual

Aadhaar linkage with electoral roll on cards

The election commission of India (ECI) has been working on a series of electoral reforms, and the agenda includes linking Aadhaar with the electoral roll, considering paid news and false affidavit as electoral offence/corrupt practice, better monitoring the role of print media and social media intermediari