Army grounds ALH fleet for safety checks

The Army has again grounded its fleet of Advanced Light Helicopters for a safety audit, following a fatal crash on Thursday morning in which an aviation technician was killed and two pilots suffered injuries. The grounding has been done as a precautionary measure to conduct a detailed safety inspection of the fleet.

The Indian Air Force however confirmed that it is still operating its fleet of ALHs, following safety checks that are being done in batches. The Navy is still undertaking safety checks on the fleet. The cause of the crash is not immediately known and a court of inquiry has been ordered to get into details of the technical fault suffered by the aircraft.

Army officials said that the pilot proceeded for a precautionary landing after reporting a technical fault. However, due to the undulating ground and undergrowth, the helicopter disintegrated on landing, injuring all three occupants. Aviation Technician Pabballa Anil succumbed to his injuries after being taken to hospital.


The grounding will put extra burden on the army's ageing Cheetah/Chetak fleet that is tasked with ferrying supplies to difficult forward positions and are used for casualty evacuations and transportation.

A work horse for the armed forces that operates in diverse environment from warships to high altitude areas like the Siachen glacier, the ALH fleet has undertaken over 3.9 lakh flying hours till now. The armed forces, as well as some export customers, are flying 338 helicopters of the type.

The entire fleet had been grounded for nearly a month after two successive crashes of a Coast Guard and Naval variant of the helicopter in March. The fleet had started flying recently as safety checks did not point to a deep rooted problem with the indigenous aircraft and corrective measures had been put in place.