It is not known why the chopper carrying YSR disappeared, but aviation experts say that one reason could be that most aircraft owned by state governments are poorly maintained and fail to meet safety standards, making them vulnerable to crashes and emergencies.
Several choppers belonging to state governments have had emergencies in recent times. Last month, a helicopter carrying Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal was forced to make an emergency landing in Ferozepur after developing a technical snag. On October 29 last year, two pilots were killed when a six-seater owned by the Punjab government crashed while landing at Sahnewal airport. There has also been emergencies involving helicopters flying former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje and of choppers belonging to the Chhattisgarh government in the past few years.
Several states own helicopters and small aircraft to ferry their chief ministers, governors and other VVIPs. But experts say that the civil aviation departments of these states, which are responsible for maintaining them, do not have enough pilots and engineers to do the job.
According to industry sources, the DGCA seldom does safety audits of helicopters owned by state governments and private operators. A total of 200 choppers are registered with the DGCA. "Only during election time does the DGCA issue air safety guidelines, even then, it doesn't have enough flight inspectors to run pre-flight checks," said a senior official on condition of anonymity.
However, former DGCA chief Kanu Gohain said, "It is not just DGCA's job. The onus also lies on private operators or state governments to ensure that choppers are fit to fly."
Aviation experts, however, say that staff shortage at DGCA prevents it from running effective surveillance. Aviation expert Captain A Ranganathan said, "The International Civil Aviation Organisation had said in 2006 that our safety standards are far below what is accepted internationally. The DGCA needs to be overhauled. I think only a crash will wake up aviation authorities."
Ranganathan feels that the DGCA should now start keeping track of all choppers. "It should provide data to the air safety department which will alert operators about maintenance," he said.
Signal mandatory
It is mandatory for all choppers to install Emergency Location Transmitter (ELT). Once the chopper hits the ground, the gadget emits signals alerting other aircraft. But it has a limitation: Nearby aircraft must be tuned to the particular frequency to receive signals.
