Gen Rawat was unscathed in Cheetah crash in 2015 but weather, hills may have proved ‘deadly cocktail’ this time

NEW DELHI: General Bipin Rawat had emerged virtually unscathed as a Lt-General when his single-engine

Cheetah

helicopter had crashed immediately after taking off from a helipad in Nagaland in February 2015. This time, fate decided otherwise in the far sturdier twin-engine Mi-17 V5 helicopter.



The IAF court of inquiry will establish the exact reason that led to the crash, but experts point out that the Russian-origin Mi-17 V5s are extremely reliable helicopters compared to the obsolete

Cheetahs

and Chetaks still being operated by the armed forces.

While a Mi-17 V5 has powerful engines and advanced avionics, weather radars, autopilot systems, and IAF crews are well trained to fly them under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR), a helicopter remains an extremely complex machine that can suddenly suffer a technical snag.



Moreover, low-drifting clouds, fog and mist can often roll in unannounced during winters in the mountainous terrain of the Nilgiri Hills. The worst Mi-17 V-5 helicopter crash in the IAF took place in June 2013 when 20 personnel were killed after their chopper went down during rescue operations for the Uttarakhand floods.

“From a weather, topography and flight rules perspective, only some generic points can be made at this time on Wednesday’s crash. The fairway of the golf course at

Wellington Gymkhana Club

has a helipad with unidirectional approach that's usually used for flights from Sulur or Coimbatore,” said former naval aviator and test pilot Commander

K P Sanjeev Kumar

(retd).

“Such flights are undertaken under VFR (visual flight rules), which basically means `see and avoid’. IFR rules cannot be directly applied to such 'VFR-only' helipads, especially if they encounter instrument meteorological conditions (IMC),” he said.


“Sudden reduction in visibility can push VFR flights into peril. Also, technical issues, if any, can impose dangers due to hilly terrain and/or reduced performance. Sadly we don't yet have a silver bullet for the deadly cocktail of bad weather and hills,” he added.

The IAF inducted around 150 armed Mi-17 V5 medium-lift helicopters, which are among the latest variants of the military transport chopper, in the 2011-2018 timeframe. The deals inked with Russia, with the first in 2008 and the second in 2012, were together worth well over $2 billion.



Weaponised for combat operations, these choppers are used to ferry troops and cargo and can also operate in high-altitude areas like

Siachen

and Ladakh. They are also used to transport VVIPs like the President and PM within the country after the AgustaWestland chopper scam in 2013-2014 derailed the induction of the dozen three-engine AW-101 helicopters ordered under the Rs 3,546 crore contract inked in 2010.

Capable of carrying a maximum payload of 4,000 kg, the Mi-17 V5 even has some armoured plating and is equipped with latest-generation night vision goggles as well as chaff and flare dispensers to deflect missiles. It is operated by a three-member crew, including a pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer.


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