THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A day after a report by The New Indian Express attempted to put to rest the rumours regarding the chopper accident that claimed the life of Mollywood's first action hero superstar Jayan, a further mystery has now emerged.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) report on the November 16, 1980 accident at Sholavaram airstrip, created by the British in 350 acres during World War II in Chennai, had said the helicopter involved in the accident was 'destroyed'.
But according to another helicopter accident report published by the DGCA in 1982 and accessed by The New Indian Express a helicopter bearing the same registration number VT-EAO had met with another accident near Kochi and the pilot was killed in the accident.
As per the DGCA report, the helicopter was engaged in aerial chemical spraying operation of rubber plantations in Kallala estate near Cochin on May 30, 1982. During the 60th sortie - the last one that day - when the helicopter turned towards the helipad on completion of the swath run, the engine failed.
The helicopter lost height and hit the rubber trees. Soon, it became uncontrollable and crashed, killing the pilot, the only person in the flight, and substantially damaging the chopper. Partial oil starvation and overspeeding were cited as the probable cause of the accident.
In the accident involving Jayan, the helicopter was 'destroyed' as a result of the impact and fire and the probable cause of the accident was attributed to the helicopter becoming uncontrollable on account of the shift in CG (center of gravity) beyond operating limits, as per the DGCA report.
The mystery in the two reports is that the two choppers involved in the accident bear the same registration number. Second, in the first accident report, it was clearly mentioned that the chopper belongs to Pushpaka Aviation, while the second report is silent about the owner of the chopper.
Aviation expert Jacob K Philip said "There were some mismatches in the accident reports. As per the practices in the aviation sector, an aircraft or chopper which was destroyed in an accident should not be used for flying on any account. But here, as per the reports, a destroyed chopper was again pressed into service and met with another accident killing a crew member hardly one and half years after the first accident."
"It is also important to mention the names of the company which owned the chopper in the accident report. But here the second one doesn't carry the name of the company. This is inappropriate and against the standard practices in the aviation sector," he said.
When The New Indian Express contacted H Suresh Rao, former managing director of the Pushpaka Aviation, Mumbai, to clear the air, he said he was 17 years old when the first accident happened. "My father was handling the aviation business then. As per the information I received from my father and company staff then, we had not rebuilt the chopper. But it's true that it was our chopper which involved in the accident in Kerala in 1982," Rao said.
"Captain Sanga was killed in the accident. It has to be cross-checked whether we had reused the chopper involved in the accident after refurbishing it. As per my knowledge, the first chopper was written off soon after the accident. We owned five choppers during that period and the company was operational till 2012," he said.