Heli-pilot speaks up: VIPs, please let us fly

Fri, Sep 4 06:26 AM

The mishap that killed Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and four others happened in conditions seen in 60 per cent of all fatal helicopter crashes in India. Of the 35 civilian helicopter accidents in India between 1990 and 2009, not including the one on Wednesday morning, 12 were fatal; and in seven of these, poor visibility and bad weather - technically referred to as the loss of visual reference in flight - were to blame.

YSR's chopper took off in rain, and headed in the direction of bad weather. While it is still not known under what circumstances the decision to fly was made, helicopter pilots and civil aviation experts say pilots are often under pressure to operate under conditions whose risks their bosses or clients do not fully comprehend.

"VIPs tend to ignore aviation rules while flying and mostly overrule pilots' warnings," a veteran pilot and civil aviation expert told The Indian Express on condition of anonymity.

"Most fatal accidents have happened because of ignoring weather conditions and delaying decision-making (on either attempting an emergency landing or returning to the point of departure) by those flying the aircraft," said retired Air Vice Marshal K Sridharan, founder and president of Rotary Wing Society of India (RWSI), a New Delhi-based non-profit organisation that keeps detailed data on helicopter accidents.

Wing Commander (retd) S Katoch, Chief Pilot and Director, Civil Aviation Department of the Jammu and Kashmir government, said civilian aircraft on private flights would continue to be at risk of fatal accidents until state governments standardize their civil aviation departments, free them from non-technical bureaucratic cobwebs, and ensure that politicians do not directly or indirectly pressure pilots to fly in marginal weather or when the airworthiness of the aircraft is not beyond doubt.

The JandK government has so far lost three choppers in crashes. The last fatal accident in 2003 claimed the state's top pilot Capt. J S Kahlon, who crashed on a flight back from Amarnath.

"Capt. Kahlon was an outstanding pilot but he would never say no to VIPs," Wing Commander Katoch said. "The then chief minister, Farooq Abdullah, would insist on pushing the line."

"This is not war," Katoch added. "Our (pilots') first priority must be the safety of VIPs. There is no scope to try and show we are daredevils."

Katoch used to be Kahlon's deputy in the state Civil Aviation department. He is currently one of the state's six pilots, four of whom fly helicopters. Katoch has been flying for 28 years now - the last 12 of which have been spent flying VIPs in JandK. He has flown 10,000 hours - 4,000 of them in JandK.

"The one big thing I have learnt carrying VIPs like chief ministers etc. is that we (pilots) must put our foot down and say no if we have the slightest doubt in our minds," Katoch said. He recalled an incident when former chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad - now Union Health Minister - had wanted to take an extra person on board, and he had had to politely decline.

"Azad sahib once insisted that we take an additional person. He wanted to take a cameraperson. But there was no way we could have risked that. It is also about the physical load (that an aircraft can lift). I insisted that we cannot do that. I knew no VIP likes to hear a 'no'. But I pleaded saying that my pilot will carry a camera and take pictures if it is essential."

According to Katoch, one way of deflecting the inevitable pressure on a pilot in the service of a state government might be to create a uniform system for all state civil aviation departments, and bring them under the direct control of the IAF.

"Most of these civil aviation departments are run by non-technical bureaucrats of the state governments. This creates a lot of problems. We are not driving cars, and it is impossible to explain to a babu that the tiniest doubt needs to be cleared before we start to fly," Katoch said.

Inside News

Editor's picks