Flights Of Fantasy
[M Panging Pao]
During this month two military helicopters crashed in Arunachal; on 21 October one advanced light helicopter crashed near Singging village in Upper Siang district, killing five personnel; earlier, on 5 October, one Cheetah helicopter crashed near Jimithang in Tawang district, killing one pilot and critically injuring the other. Earlier, on 3 June, 2019, an An-32 aircraft on a routine flight from Jorhat to Mechukha with 13 personnel on board crashed near Mechukha.
Research reveals that there have been too many aircraft crashes in Arunachal. Since 1995, 15 aircraft have crashed in Arunachal, claiming 112 lives. Among the crashed aircraft are 12 helicopters, two An-32 and 1 Su-30 aircraft. During the last 12 years, there has been an average of one aircraft crash per year, claiming 76 lives, making an average of nine lives lost per year. Another worrying matter is that majority of these crashes have been in Tawang area. Many prominent lives have been lost in these crashes, including sitting chief minister, cabinet minister, union minister and senior officials.
With so many crashes, many are asking if Arunachal is the new Bermuda Triangle. It is said that a number of aircraft and ships have disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the Bermuda Triangle. There are many reasons for these aircraft crashes. The foremost reason is bad weather. It is widely known that weather in mountainous Arunachal is very fickle and turns into bad weather in quick time. Despite the knowledge of fickle weather, most of the aircraft operating in our area are not configured with standard equipment required for bad weather flying like terrain collision avoidance system, ground proximity warning system, weather radar, etc.
The other factor causing these accidents is pilot error. Despite the knowledge of bad and fickle weather, pilots take chances to penetrate bad weather in the mountains, leading to accidents. We require very mature and experienced pilots operating in Arunachal.
Another aspect is the lack of essential services like fire tenders and poorly maintained helipads/airports.
There is need for stricter control on aviation in our area in the form of standard operating procedures (SOP) and laying down weather criteria for flying. For enforcing these SOPs and exercising strict control over aviation, we require professionally qualified aviators to control aviation in our area. Most officials of the civil aviation department have little knowledge about aviation.
Many days of search are undertaken to locate crash sites. There is a piece of equipment called emergency locator transmitter (ELT), which is automatically activated in case of a crash. The activated signals are picked up by satellites and the position of the crash site is displayed. Why are the ELTs not working?
Civil aviation is poised to increase due to operationalisation of airports in Pasighat, Tezu, Mechukha, Ziro, Hollongi, etc. If these urgent steps are not taken, we may see more aircraft crashes and loss of precious lives. High time we removed this tag of Arunachal being called the new Bermuda Triangle. (The contributor is retired Group Captain, Indian Air Force)
