NEW DELHI: The Indian Army has decided to ground its fleet of Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv helicopter fleet, following the crash landing of the Army Aviation Helicopter in the Kashmir valley on Thursday, killing a technician and injuring two pilots.
The whole fleet will undergo “checks and procedures” as prescribed by the manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The final clearance for the fleet to get airborne also will come from HAL.
Thursday's was the third incident in the past two months, in which the Dhruv helicopter which was on an operational mission made a precautionary landing on the banks of the Marua river in the J&K’s Kishtwar region.
The pilots had reported a technical fault to the Air Traffic Controller (ATC) and proceeded for a precautionary landing. Two pilots and a technician were on board and were rescued. Later the technician lost his life in the hospital. The incident followed a court of inquiry
The Army had allowed a select number of helicopters, including the one that met with the accident, to fly after clearing all the checks and procedures. These procedures were specified by the HAL.
The flying operations of the entire fleet of ALH Dhruv with the armed forces including those with the Coast Guard was grounded after the March 8 Navy chopper accident off the coast of Mumbai.
As reported by The New Indian Express, the Indian Navy has not started its ALH’s flying operations. The ALH of IAF which have undergone the checks which were instituted by HAL after the Navy and Coast Guard incidents in Mar 23 are continuing with operations.
As per the IAF, the helicopters which are undergoing these checks shall be cleared for flying after completion of the same.
To date, a total of 336 Helicopters have been produced by October 2022 with some of them meeting with accidents or getting rendered unfit for flying. These helicopters come in four different versions and have clocked more than 3.9 lakh cumulative flying hours. The Indian Army currently has around 145 and has ordered an additional 25 ALH Mk III. More than 70 are with the IAF, 18 with the Navy and 20 with the Coast Guard. The choppers which have crashed this year include ones from the Navy, Coast Guard and the Army.
The indigenously designed and developed Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH-DHRUV) is a twin-engine, multi-role, multi-mission new-generation helicopter in the 5.5-ton weight class.
Dhruv is “type –Certified” for Military operations by the Centre for Military Airworthiness Certification (CEMILAC) and civil operations by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Certification of the utility military variant was completed in 2002 and that of the civil variant was completed in 2004. The deliveries of production series helicopters commenced from 2001-02 onwards.