.JPG)
The 7.43pm crash of an Indian Army HAL-built Dhruv advanced light helicopter yesterday in Kashmir happened to be the third accident of the type in less than a month, a streak that has set off alarm bells once again within HAL. Last night’s accident, in which two Army pilots Lt Col Rajesh Gulati and Major Tahir Khan were killed, was preceded by two crashes of Dhruv copters from the lot exported to Ecuador — one on Jan 13 and the other on Jan 28 (Ecuador has lost four Dhruvs of the seven it has operated since 2009). There were no casualties in the two Ecuador accidents involving the Dhruv last month.
An HAL team dispatched to Ecuador on Jan 15 is part of accident investigations at a time when the country has restricted use of the Dhruvs to operational flights, and not for training or executive transport flights. HAL sources say preliminary information suggests the causes of the two January accidents are different.
The Sarang Dhruv aerobatics team is scheduled to perform at Aero India this month.
The higher altitude is affecting an already underpowered machine.
Typical MSM eye catching headline ! Disses a desi product in a phrase. Do you know the cause of these 3 Crashes 2 of which were in Equador and 1 in manasbal in night flying conditions in a mountainous area ! for all we know all 3 might be due to 3 different causes and yet not related to either manufacturing or design of dhruv
Dhruv's are really trashy…both in terms of looks and performance…I don't know when our forces will stop buying trashy equipment resulting the death of our brave soldiers, just to satisfy the ego of those lazy baboons at HAL!
I do not think HAL has capability cauz they always assembled components to make LCA or Dhrv ….. without real capability its all DRAMA
IAS lobby never wishes that India develop defense industrial capability else their commission is gone ….
Yeah 3 helicopters and 2 fighters…any bets when will next crash
Made by HAL, enough said.
God bless Team Sarang!
It's pilots who loose their lives. Allow Dhruv to be used by politicians and vvip for transport. But they will not fly. Until someone from political clan dies nothing will change
what could be the reasons for crash
in all the accidents?
1. Engine failure? ALH has twin engines..i think it can land in emergency if one engine fails
2. Fire in Engine
3. Main gear box failure
4. rotor blades shearing/breaking
5. Rear rotor failure
6. structural breakup
7.contaminants in fuel
8. pilot error in reading the dial gauges especially digital MFD dispaly readings,pilots familiarity with the controls and ALH
9. BAd weather etc…
10. quality control
Ecuador 10000 feet above sea level and JK also high in mountains. The engine performance in elevated terrain suffers, in addition to being an under powered machine. Patriotism doesn't mean that we ignore a problem and blame it on everything but he machine. Being patriotic means that we must solve problems in peace time so the we can win wars !!!!
Whatever is the issue HAL should fix the problem. In this cases it is not the pilot error it is technical error . They need to fix not Chalta hai yaar attitude
stealth if not everything in combat !!
if VTOL is useless then why India bought Sea Harrier ?
in fact most of top naval leaders belongs to the group, precisely of the reason …….
its a tactical game where ease of maintenance not everything ….. but only soldiers can understand it,
not TV/ UPS mechanics !!