Panel blames YSR's chopper crew for crash

A panel probing the fatal crash of former Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy's chopper has reported that Mr. Reddy did not interfere with in the flight's path or progression. The Tyagi panel blamed the crew for wasting vital minutes before the crash.

The helicopter, which crashed last September claiming the life of former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy and four other persons, was “probably not airworthy” but this was not a contributing factor to the accident, an inquiry has found.

The probe panel, headed by Pawan Hans chief R. K. Tyagi, also established that there was “no evidence” to indicate any interference in the flight operations by the VIP on board.

The primary cause of the crash of the Bell-403 chopper on September 2 last year was the error of the crew, which after noticing a fault in the oil transmission pressure “was engrossed for vital six minutes before the impact in searching for the relevant checklist from the Flight Manual“.

The report pointed out that the number one engine of the chopper had experienced two technical problems on earlier flights which required maintenance action before the helicopter was released for the next flight.

The maintenance engineers and the flight crew “ignored this advisory before operating the flight on September two.”

But both the engines operated normally and remained capable of producing the required power till the time of the crash, the enquiry committee found.

“Thus the helicopter was probably not airworthy when it was released for flight on September 2, even though it was not a contributory factor to the accident,” the report said.

The Chief Minister, his special secretary P Subramaniam, Chief Security Officer ASC Weseley and pilots Grp Capt S. K. Bhatia and Capt M. S. Reddy, were killed when the Bell 430 crashed in the dense jungles of Nalamalla hills.

The report said “The Committee in the present case could not find any evidence/indication wherein (the) VIP interfered/influenced the flight planning/progression.”

It recommended conducting of suitable short-term courses for pilots structured to cater to the needs of VIP helicopter operations.

The committee also ruled out any bomb threat or fire on board the helicopter before the crash.

Regarding the weather on route, the enquiry panel said the crew was aware of the poor weather conditions but “continued to proceed ahead in spite of inclement weather which was continuously aggravating and becoming more and more difficult to negotiate.”

It said the Co-Pilot “also did not advise the Pilot-in -Command (PIC) to return or divert to the nearest location” and blamed the PIC as well as the supervisory staff of the Andhra Pradesh Aviation Corporation Limited (APACL) for “lack of knowledge or disregard of the rules”.

During the final 14 seconds before the crash, the Co-Pilot repeatedly called out ‘Go Around’ thereby indicating that some problem like the close vicinity of the hill feature. “In spite of the co-pilot’s ‘Go Around’ call, the PIC could not act apparently due to incapacitation,” it said.

Blind flying by pilots killed YSR

Pointing at pilot error, the inquiry committee probing the copter crash that killed Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy and others on board has concluded that the crew, after noticing a technical snag in bad weather, were “engrossed for vital six minutes before the (collision) impact in searching for the relevant checklist from the flight manual”.

This “distracted their attention from the prevailing poor visibility weather conditions thus leading to the loss of situational awareness”, the report said.

The committee concluded that the probable cause of the accident was that it “occurred due to loss of control resulting in uncontrolled descent on the terrain at a very high rate of descent due to entry into severe down draught”.

A down draught is a powerful current of air moving downwards during thunderstorms and bad weather.

The report also points out that “the crew flew in instrument flying condition though the flight plan was cleared for Visual Flight Rules (VFR)”.

Instrument flying condition is when pilots fly primarily with reference to instruments instead of being guided by the visibility outside.

The instrument flying condition is also referred to as blind flying and is regarded by helicopter aviation experts as one of the main reasons behind accidents.

The pilot of the ill-fated helicopter that crashed on September 2, 2009 was Gp. Capt. S.K. Bhatia, a senior serving IAF officer, while the co-pilot was M.S. Reddy.

The fact that the committee has concluded that the crew lost six crucial minutes before the collision in their search for a flight manual checklist in bad weather indicates that YSR and other passengers onboard could have been saved from the crash had there not been this error on the part of the pilots.

The combined result of the down draught — that aided rapid loss of altitude of the helicopter in bad weather — and the “loss in situation awareness” triggered by the crew’s search for a checklist led to the crash.

The Bell-430 helicopter of the AP Government crashed into the Rudrakoduru Hills near Kurnool while on a flight from Hyderabad on September 2, 2009.

The obvious pilot error, hinted at by the report, is shocking since Gp Capt Bhatia was regarded by the IAF as a seasoned pilot with an abundance of flying experience. Even top IAF officers had referred to Gp. Capt. Bhatia as a “very experienced pilot”.