DGCA had found several violations of aircraft maintenance by the MRO, and suspended licences of three aircraft engineers of the Juhu-based company
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday had a miraculous escape when his helicopter crash-landed in Nilanga near Latur seconds after take-off.
The six-seater US-made Sikorsky VT-CMM helicopter got entangled in wires while landing from about 70 ft and was badly damaged.
Fadnavis tweeted that he and everyone else were safe because of the “blessings of 11 crore people of Maharashtra”. “I am safe. There was a minor accident involving the helicopter. People shouldn't believe in rumours,” Fadnavis said.
A Juhu-based MRO (maintenance repair and overhaul), the company which has the mandate for maintenance of the aircraft blames the ‘weather’ as the possible culprit for the crash landing of a helicopter ferrying Fadnavis and his team. However, sources in the DGCA said there is a need for a thorough investigation into whether the aircraft was properly maintained, as DGCA last year had found that the same company was involved in several maintenance-related violations.
The pilot of the aircraft has revealed that due sudden drop in air pressure, he decided to land and came in contact with a high tension wire which lead to its crash. Aviation industry insiders have questioned the selection of location for the helipad as it has high tension wires around it.
“Losing air pressure suddenly could be purely due to weather conditions,” said Rajeev Gupta, Director and CEO of Indamar Aviation Pvt Ltd.
He said that Maharashtra government’s Sikorsky helicopter VT-CMM is being maintained by his company for more than four years “It absolutely had no maintenance issues and was doing fine,” he added.
Interestingly, in October last year, DGCA had found several aircraft maintenance violations by Indamar Aviation Pvt Ltd. It had suspended the licences of three aircraft maintenance engineers of the company after it found that signatures of engineers were forged in entries in the flight report books, raising serious questions over the quality of maintenance carried out.
On these allegations, Gupta told DNA that Ministry of Civil aviation and DGCA were having a re-look at these allegations and an order is expected by Friday evening. “DGCA went into the extremes on the basis of certain discrepancies in documentation filing. However, at no time did the aircraft maintenance ever suffer.”
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