Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) has been identified and flight safety issues are being addressed on priority, whose safety record came under scrutiny after a series of accidents earlier this year. This information was shared by a senior army officer with the journalist of Hindustan Times. The matter of design and metallurgy behind the flaws is coming to the fore.
The Army, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard operate more than 330 ALH poles.
The Army, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard operate more than 330 ALH poles. During March–May the helicopter was cleared to fly and again withheld after safety issues came to the fore in the backdrop of three accidents during this period. A second official said on condition of anonymity that the helicopters, designed and developed by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, are being cleared to fly in batches for urgent missions after extensive testing.
In the last five years, the ALH was involved in 12 accidents.
In the last five years, the ALH was involved in 12 accidents, including the crash-landing of an army helicopter in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar on 4 May, in which a soldier was killed and two pilots were injured. Earlier, a Coast Guard ALH made a forced landing in Kochi on 26 March, and a Navy ALH made a ditching (emergency landing in water) in the Arabian Sea on 8 March.
The information was given by the Center for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC).
HT reported on May 10 that a design review of “safety-critical systems” on the ALH may be due, according to a top government regulatory body responsible for certifying the airworthiness of military aircraft. The Bengaluru-based Center for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC) wrote to the three services and the Coast Guard on 23 April. It ordered a design review of the booster control rods to improve the airworthiness of the ALH.
The most likely cause of the March 8 incident was a technical failure.
The committee constituted by the Chief Executive (Airworthiness) of CEMILAC found that the most likely cause of the March 8 incident was a technical failure – an error in the assembly of the serrated washer in the booster control rods. It recommended short and long term measures to enhance the safety of ALH. CEMILAC wrote in the letter dated April 23 that the design, development and qualification of steel booster control rods tolerant to assembly defects would be expedited and the new design compliance would be targeted to be implemented within six months to one year. HAL, the three services and the Coast Guard.
CEMILAC sets out measures to resume operations
CEMILAC laid down measures to resume operations of the ALH, Rudra (armed version of the ALH) and the Light Combat Helicopter (LCH). The latest LCHs of the Indian Air Force were also discontinued earlier as they inherited many features of the ALH. It added that the approval for these platforms, limited to 100 flight hours each, would be given after mandatory inspection. It added that further approval for 500 flight hours or up to one year, whichever is earlier, would be based on the successful completion of two critical trials by HAL.
