The investigation team came down heavily not only on the instructor, but also on the Rotary Wing Academy, the owners of the ill-fated helicopter.
In August 2010, Air Commodore (Retd) R Assey, the flying instructor during Thursday’s incident, was involved in a Chetak helicopter accident at HAL Airport. On August 27, 2010, a Chetak flown by Assey and trainee pilot Veerendra Singh crashed at the airport. The duo was injured in the accident.
The investigation team came down heavily not only on the instructor, but also on the Rotary Wing Academy, the owners of the ill-fated helicopter. KL Meena, regional controller of air safety, in his report — Accident to HAL Rotary Wing Academy, Chetak Helicopter (VT-EIV) — recommended action against the academy and Assey.
The report said the probable cause of the accident was “sudden pitch up during hover due to improper handling of controls by the instructor”, which resulted in tail rotor hitting the ground. The report recommended action against the instructor for not taking action and not following proper emergency procedures.
With regard to the academy, the report said: “Action as deemed fit may be taken against the organisation (academy) for not having an approved training and procedures manual for imparting flying training to students and not keeping the required performa for carrying out the skill test/proficiency checks of their pilots.” Assey joined the academy in September 2008 after serving 34 years in the IAF. HAL Rotary Wing Academy was established in February 2000 for helicopter flying training of ab initio civil pilot trainees. The academy has choppers such as Dhruv, Chetak and Schweizer 300C-Schweizer 330SPs. It also has four flying and ground instructors.
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