The emergency buoys of a Pawan Hans helicopter were not armed when it crashed into the sea near Mayabunder in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands on February 24, killing a passenger, according to a preliminary report released by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) on Saturday.
The helicopter, an Airbus AS365N3 registered as VT-PHY, was operating the Sri Vijaya Puram-Rangat-Mayabinder-Rangat-Sri Vijaya Puram sector, carrying 10 passengers, including eight adults and two infants. Five passengers were heading to Rangat, and the remaining five – four adults and one infant – to Mayabunder.
“The buoys were not armed in the cockpit during the approach although the same is required under the Standard Operating Procedures for operations at Port Blair as approved by the DGCA in the company’s operations manual,” the report said.
The floats failed to deploy upon impact with water. The plane flipped onto its starboard side and came to rest on the sea floor in four to five feet of water, leaving the port side above the waterline. Crew members evacuated all passengers who were taken to a hospital in Mayabandar by boat. Three passengers, including the infant, and both crew members were then airlifted to Sri Vijaya Puram by Pawan Hans helicopter. One of the passengers died on the third day after the accident. Two more – an adult and an infant – were released from hospital on March 12.
Read also | What led to the helicopter crash in Andaman? Pawan Hans shares the details
In its interim safety recommendations, the AAIB said the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) should direct Pawan Hans to ensure strict adherence to all passenger seat restraint mechanisms and life jackets where applicable, and conduct spot checks on commercial helicopter operators to ensure their compliance. It also recommended that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation direct the company to educate its pilots about arming the buoys for all applicable operations in accordance with the approved operations manual.
The report indicated that during the flight, the crew wore full seat belts, including shoulder belts, while passengers only had lap belts.
Separately, the AAIB issued a preliminary report on the February 23 Redbird Airlines plane crash in Jharkhand. It was found that the emergency location transmitter had not been activated. The Beechcraft C90A plane, which was conducting an air ambulance flight from Ranchi to Delhi with seven people on board, crashed near Simaria in Chatra district about 17 minutes after take-off. The crew requested to continue heading to the runway due to the weather – a request that was approved by air traffic control – and were last contacted at 7.19pm, approximately 12 minutes after departure. Fuel samples and weather data are being analyzed, the AAIB said.
