BENGALURU: The Army and Air Force variants of the indigenous Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv have been cleared for operations, nearly four months after the entire fleet was grounded following a fatal crash in January.
In an official press release issued by the HAL on Thursday, the clearance was granted based on the recommendations of the Defect Investigation (DI) Committee, which looked into the cause of the January 5 crash in Porbandar. “A time-bound plan for the phased resumption of flying has been worked out with the users,” the release said.
This clearance applies only to the Army and Air Force variants for now. The crash on January 5 involved an ALH Mark-III of the Indian Coast Guard, killing all three crew members during a training sortie. Following the incident, all 330 ALHs in service with the armed forces were grounded as a safety precaution.
Investigators had found that the chopper had failed to respond to pilot inputs in its final few seconds. The root cause was identified as a fracture in the swashplate assembly, a critical part in the helicopter’s transmission system. HAL officials had also suspected that a rare material failure may have led to the malfunction.
Though the Army and Air Force variants have now been cleared, the advisory to civilian operators remains. HAL has asked them to keep their ALH Mark-III helicopters grounded until the investigation into the Porbandar crash is fully completed.