Uttarkashi Helicopter Crash: Main Rotor Blade Hit Overhead Cable During Emergency Landing – AAIB Preliminary Report

Uttarkashi Helicopter Crash: In its preliminary report on the chopper crash at Uttarkashi district on May 8, The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) stated that the helicopter had collided with an overhead fibre cable with its main rotor and this came at the time when trying to make an emergency landing.

The Bell 407 helicopter that was the property of Aerotrans Services Pvt Ltd, was flying between Kharsali helipad (Yamunotri) to Jhala helipad (Gangotri) when it crashed down at 8.35 am, killing six individuals in the helicopter.

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The helicopter had about 20 minutes in air, then it started to lose altitude out of the assigned altitude as per the report of the AAIB.

The 59 years old pilot with experience of air flying of 6160 hours tried to land on the Uttarkashi-Gangotri road in an emergency situation at Gangnani. Nevertheless, it collided with an overhead fibre cable whose path was parallel to the roadway causing the crash as its main rotor blade struck it.

"The aircraft failed to land and subsequently tumbled down the hillside, eventually coming to rest against a tree roughly 250 feet into a gorge," the report said.

The report also indicated that National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), USA and Transportation Safety Board (TSB), Canada have designated official representatives and technical advisors to give a helping hand to the investigations regarding the crash.

"The investigation team is working closely with them to decide the next steps needed to find out the exact cause of the crash. Records obtained from various stakeholders are currently being scrutinized.," it said.

The chopper crash in Uttarkashi was the second of the five chopper accidents in the Char Dham route within six weeks, the most recent was on June 15 when a chopper carrying seven people, including a two-year-old girl, engaged in a crash at the Kedarnath region.

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Following the June 15 helicopter crash, Uttarakhand government has formed a committee to come up with standard operative procedure (SOP) of running helicopters in the state. Home secretary Shailesh Bagauli, the chairman of the committee will hand over the committee recommendations to the state government by August 15 to eliminate chopper accidents in the future.

The accident pointed to safety concerns that were increasingly raised about helicopter services to the Char Dham pilgrimage circuit that consists of four Hindu holy shrines in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. The pathways receive tens of thousands of pilgrims yearly, some of them arrive by helicopter traversing the dangerous religious mountains.

In spite of that, one chopper of Heritage Aviation left Sahastradhara helipad in Dehradun at 5.15 pm that day on July 14 to go to Kedarnath disregarding the bad weather warning. The matter has been ordered to be probed by Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCADA).

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