YSR pilot had poor track record

Group Captain S.K. Bhatia, the pilot in command (PIC) of the ill-fated Bell 430 helicopter that crashed, killing Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy and four others on board on September 2, had on an earlier occasion refused to undergo a pre-flight medical examination for consumption of alcohol in violation of rules.
He had earlier failed to take action to rectify the fluctuation of the hydraulic system on a flight that had the Dalai Lama on board, an inquiry committee report has revealed.
The four-member inquiry committee headed by Pawan Hans Helicopters CMD, Mr R.K. Tyagi, said Gp. Capt. Bhatia was involved in “reportable incidents”.
It said: “He was involved in an incident on 19.01.2009 while operating flight from Hyderabad to Gulbarga with Hon’ble Dalai Lama on board. Hydraulic pressure of No. 2 system was fluctuating and failed to take appropriate action even though he was cautioned by the co-pilot for the same (sic).”
The report said he was involved in incidents of “exceedances” of torque on three different occasions and that “these exceedances were not reported to the regulatory authority”.
The committee detected discrepancies regarding Gp. Capt. Bhatia’s licence, which it said indicated “lack of knowledge/disregard to the rules”. “For the endorsement on Bell 430 helicopters, only one instrument rating test was carried out against the requirement of two instrument rating tests...” the report states.
Flying hours during training sorties were reflected in the “personal log book whereas it should be in the training column”, it stated.
The PIC had not completed his mandatory “recurrent simulator training” that was due in June last year.
Slamming the functioning of the AP Aviation Corporation Ltd the report states that the “organisation discouraged its pilots to undergo mandatory recurrent simulator training”. It points out that “no attempt was made to revise the operational manual of the organisation in view of the new civil aviation requirements...”. The report said APACL MD was changed thrice and “no system has been evolved for co-ordinated working”.

YSR copter plunged 10,000 ft/min

The helicopter carrying the former Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, crashed within 30 seconds of the co-pilot warning the pilot about the craft veering to the ground, the inquiry committee which probed the mishap has found.

It was a snag in the transmission oil pressure gauge that distracted the pilots of the helicopter and proved fateful on the morning of September 2, 2009. The transmission oil pressure gauge helps the pilot monitor the condition of the gears and is customarily checked in the pre-flight inspection.

At 9.21 am, the crew noticed the snag and spent six crucial minutes locating the appropriate procedure in the emergency checklist. During this time, they failed to take note of the flight path going awry thus leading to the loss of situational awareness.

Things went out of control and at 9.27 am the co-pilot sensed the emergency but the helicopter crashed within 30 seconds.

The probe report indicates that the pilot, Group Captain S.K. Bhatia, “failed to react to the situation” despite repeated alerts from the co-pilot about the proximity of the ground in the last 33 seconds.

The committee also found that the out-of-control chopper descended at the speed of 10,000 ft per minute in the last 4 seconds before the crash.

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”.