On Wednesday, an Indian Navy ALH was on a routine sortie off the coast of Mumbai when it was involved in an accident close to the coast. The Navy stated that immediate search and rescue ensured the safe recovery of a crew of three by Naval patrol craft.
An investigation into the incident has been ordered, according to the statement. Last October, a weaponized Army Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) crashed in Arunachal Pradesh, killing all five people on board.
Following the fatal crash, all of the country’s ALHs, numbering over 300, were grounded for safety checks. “We’re putting them all through a one-time check, and they’ll be flying after that,” an official source said last year. Another source stated that it is purely a precautionary measure taken in the event of a major crash.
Prior to that, an Indian Army Cheetah helicopter crashed in Kashmir’s Gurez sector, killing one of its pilots. The helicopter “crashed in the Baraub area of Gurez in Bandipora district this afternoon, while on a routine mission to evacuate an ailing soldier from a forward post,” according to the Army.
Earlier this year, a trainer plane crashed in Madhya Pradesh’s Rewa district, 400 kilometers from the state capital Bhopal.
According to an official, the trainee pilot on board was injured in the incident, which occurred around 11.30 p.m. on January 5. According to J P Patel, in charge of the Chorhatta police station, the aircraft crashed three kilometers away from the airstrip after hitting the dome of a temple and a tree while on a training mission.
Captain Vimal Kumar (50), a Patna resident, was killed in the crash, while trainee pilot Sonu Yadav (23), a Jaipur resident, was injured and taken to the government-run Sanjay Gandhi Medical College hospital, according to Rewa collector Manoj Pushp.
