Two Indian Coast Guard pilots and an aircrew diver were killed on Sunday in a Dhruv advanced light helicopter (ALH) crash at Porbandar in Gujarat, the latest in a series of accidents involving the locally produced chopper, which put the spotlight back on its troubling safety record.
“An ALH Mk-III of the ICG met with an accident at Porbandar airport runway in Gujarat at 1215 hrs on January 05, 2025. The ICG helicopter, with two pilots and one aircrew diver, was on a routine training sortie. The crew were shifted to Government Hospital, Porbandar, where they were declared brought dead,” the defence ministry said in a statement.
The coast guard identified the crew as Commandant Saurabh, Deputy Commandant SK Yadav and Pradhan Navik Manoj. It has ordered a board of inquiry to find out what led to the accident.
Also Read | ‘Human error’ caused 2021 chopper crash that killed CDS Rawat: Parl panel report
This was the second crash involving the ICG’s ALH Mk-III in four months. Then too, two pilots and an aircrew diver were killed after their helicopter crashed into the Arabian Sea near Porbandar on September 2.
{{/usCountry}}This was the second crash involving the ICG’s ALH Mk-III in four months. Then too, two pilots and an aircrew diver were killed after their helicopter crashed into the Arabian Sea near Porbandar on September 2.
{{/usCountry}}In the latest accident, the ALH was returning from a routine sortie and crashed while attempting to land on the runway of the airport, Superintendent of Police Bhagirathsinh Jadeja told HT.
“The chopper caught fire and three crew members including two pilots and one diver could not survive,” he said.
The coast guard ordered a one-time safety inspection of its ALH fleet after the September 2 mishap, with focus on flying controls and transmission system. The fleet was then temporarily grounded (it is not uncommon for fleets to be grounded for safety checks.)
The coast guard operates 16 ALHs, designed and developed by Bengaluru-based aircraft maker Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
Also Read | Two-pilot requirement may be eased for helicopter ops
The military’s Dhruv fleet, plagued by a nagging design issue, was grounded several times in 2023 too after several accidents called into question its flight safety record.
This led to a comprehensive design review, first reported by HT, of the helicopter’s booster control rods followed by a drive to replace the flaw-ridden existing ones with new rods in each ALH. The armed forces operate around 330 twin-engine ALHs.
These rods allow pilots to control the helicopter’s motion, and any failure can severely affect power input to the rotor blades and cause accidents.
Replacement of the collective control rod and the other two rods (lateral and longitudinal) has been completed on all military ALHs. The new rods are made of steel instead of aluminium.
The multi-mission helicopter has been involved in around 15 accidents during the last five years. HT highlighted the design issue and steps taken to fix it in a series of stories.
A top government regulatory body responsible for the certification of the airworthiness of military aircraft ordered the design review in April 2023. The Bengaluru-based Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC) ordered the design review of the booster control rods to improve the ALH’s airworthiness.