Terrible news just in. Three persons on board an HAL-built Dhruv helicopter of the Ecuadorian government were killed in a crash, the President’s office in the country has announced. The helicopter was reportedly on election duty, but was not assigned to transport the country’s president at any time.
According to an AFP report, the Dhruv chopper was flying from Guayaquil to the country’s capital Quito. It went down in the Chimborazo region, according to an Ecuadorian military spokesperson.
The three Ecuadorian military personnel who’ve lost their lives are Lieutenant Jorge Luis Flores, Sgt Unda Christian Benavides, and Captain Hector Caicedo. (RIP.) Captain Fabian Pazos survived the crash and is currently in intensive care.
This is the second Dhruv in Ecuadorian service to crash — the first, during a military parade in October 2009, though both pilots escaped with minor injuries.
Ofcourse it has to crash in a foreign land, Indian forces have them by the dozens and we don't experience such incidents!!!
Seriously, is ALH so competitive that someone could sabotage it. Well, maybe another reason could be that the pilots suck at flying this bird, afterall the first crash was due to pilot error.
Cheers and welcome to the world of cut throat business.
Hello Shiv, could you also put out any further updates on this news piece whenever they're out, like the air crash investigation reports etc. This crash paints an extremely poor picture of an Indian product an especially the organisation manufacturing it. Considering it is going to dent any further exports of the Dhruv it would be generous of you to let the readers know if the machine malfunctioned or the men behind it. Many thanks & Jai Hind Nikhil
First let the crash investigation report come out before passing negative comments. As positive news takes the stairs and negative ones the elevators. Till now Dhruv has performed quite brilliantly with the IAF and having a sarang aerobatic team. Very few airforces have such helicopter aerobatic team.
Agree fully with 1st and 2nd Anonymous.
sir ..one crash after a five year interval is nothing in a world where planes and helicopters are crashing daily…even very popular and succesful aircraft like sea kings and harriers have abbyssymal safety records. but it hasn't hampered their export potential…what is required is unique attributes and aggresive marketing…
the dhruv has some excelent and unique attributes and also a good safety record..all that is required is a good marketing strategy…
we have several world class products like dhruv ,tejas ,pinaka ,arjun , nag , aakash…all we need is to identify the potential export market and adopt an effective marketing strategy…i am sure we have teh potential to emerge as a significant arms exporter.
are the pilots of ecuadorian air force trained well to fly these, last crash probe stated it was pilot error.
Indian armed forces have more dhruvs
but they don't crash every now and then…
What do you say ?????
How can we convince the Congress party to buy one for its vice president???
How about one for the defence minister?
Reason for it. Some business rivalry?.
I think there are some serious design issues and couple that with quality control from HAL this comes as no suprise. I am hoping we don't purchase it Z-9 has far better safety record.
Anonymoue at 9:28 P.M
Are you sure that you are not just another paid shill from China doing his .50 cents post, given your blatantly biased comments?
Anonymoue at 9:28 P.M
Are you sure that you are not just another paid shill from China doing his .50 cents post, given your blatantly biased comments?
Anonymoue at 9:28 P.M
Are you sure that you are not just another paid shill from China doing his .50 cents post, given your blatantly biased comments?
NRS says –
HAL Dhruv is not crashing in India and thus it indicates issues with weather, pilot, operational training, etc
Do not blame everything on HAL – LCA did not crash so far, other helicopters are not crashing, etc
I hope that they locate the black box and figure out the actual reason for the crash through data and voice recorders…
HAL and IAF has the capability to analyse and help that country…
Hello Shiv, could you please tell us if the IAF will have any benefit from acquiring the LCH, while there is an ALH-WSI (Rudra) and both of them have almost similar weapon systems configuration. There maybe a few shortcomings with the Rudra but is it prudent to invest in the development of just a light combat helicopter instead of a medium combat chopper which can have heavy armour and used for the plains and ALH-WSI for the mountains/jungles?
This is what happens when you buy from snake charmers
indian president , pm rejected shitty dhrus , why on earth ecuador pm has chosen dhruv
Its easy for the Z9 to have a looking nice record with a totalitarian and barbaric government that hides all the crashes.
cujo
Folks, keep it clean! Please refrain from personal attacks, profanity and trolling. Thanks 🙂
Z-9 is operated by large number of foreign users and to date has suffered no crashes overseas. IMO i hope to save lives this product is grounded and the customer go with safer and reliable alternates.
@Anon 12:24 what who told you that two confirmed crashes of the Z-9 in 2013 in zambia and hey its not even a fully chinese made aircraft engines still from france like the Dhruv So stop mis informing people
Anon @ 5:50 PM
Why not one for the chaiwala ? Why only for Congress Vice President ?