After the tragic accident on 15 June when a private chopper of Aryan Aviation private limited crashed in way to Kedarnath brutally killing seven passengers including a pilot , the Director General of Civil Aviation has exhibited tremendous proactive ness and postponed for the time being the services of Aryan Aviation including suspending the licences of two pilots for six months. However, the DGCA hasn’t exhibited this enthusiasm or seriousness in suspending the licences of the company whose chopper had crashed on May 8 and killed about five occupants including several injured at the border district Uttarkashi near Gangnani. Though it did show exemplary activeness to suspend the services of the KRESTEL aviation company and one another after its chopper crash landed at Sonprayag, Rudraprayag on a highway just few minutes after its taking off hitting a taxi from the back and damaging it with its pilot mildly injured and rest all being safe. The chief minister of Uttarakhand Pushkar Singh Dhami had lauded the pilot for safely landing and saving the lives of its passengers.
Meanwhile, according to senior journalist GUNANAND Jakhmola after the Kedarnath helicopter accident, Aryan Aviation’s services were suspended in a hurry and the licenses of two pilots were suspended for 6 months. According to the helicopter service companies, DGCA has taken this step to save its own reputation. Two pilots have been made scapegoats. Whereas DGCA cannot turn away from its responsibility for the accidents happening in Kedarnath.
Seven people including the pilot lost their lives in the chopper accident that happened on June 15. There is a lot of anger among helicopter service companies and senior pilots that the licenses of two pilots were suspended without any investigation. The pilots who are expressing their anger say that the sun rose at 5:11 am that day. This can be confirmed from the UCADA camera. The DGCA’s SOP allows flying from sunrise to sunset and this was followed.
Under the second SOP, it was said to maintain the height of nine thousand feet. The weather was good but there were clouds at nine thousand feet. Two pilots took off at eight and a quarter thousand feet while Aryan’s pilot Rajveer took the height of nine thousand and the accident happened, unfortunately.
Their argument is that SOP is important or life.
Questions are raised on DGCA even when we look at the five helicopter accidents of this season in Chardham. Pilots argue that DGCA gave permission to fly choppers at high altitude without any solid basis.
Whatever accidents happened, it was their first season or they had come to fly choppers in Kedarnath area after a long time. DGCA is also responsible for this that why was such a pilot given permission?
They argue that the helicopter crash was a result of flawed standard operating procedures of the DGCA and confusing instructions by flight operations inspectors.
He alleges that after the accident, the FOI and DGCA involved provided false information to DGCA and the Civil Aviation Ministry to hide their flawed SOPs and incompetence, in which the pilots were blamed. They ask why action was taken without any investigation or AAIB report? There has been a demand to immediately restore the license of both the suspended pilots.
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