Was chopper fit to fly?

HYDERABAD | NEW DELHI: The airworthiness of the missing Bell 430 helicopter in which YS Rajasekhara Reddy was flying has come under lens amid reports it had a troubled past. However, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said there was nothing to suggest it was unfit for flying. The DGCA, the civil aviation regulator which also provides licenses to aircraft and their operators, said the required licenses of the chopper were renewed on a regular basis.

Officials of the Bell company, said flight engineers have to sign documents on a daily basis after carrying out required maintenance. However, this particular aircraft was experiencing technical trouble on a regular basis and, therefore, was currently being used to train pilots, sources in the CM���s office said in Hyderabad.

A few months ago, the helicopter had suffered a fault mid-air when it was carrying Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama from Hyderabad to Gulbarga, they said, but nothing untoward happened. The sources said often it was ���wrong handling and non-compliance��� of set procedures that led to the problems and noted that the Bell-430 seven-seater had recently got a crack on its windshield.

Subsequently, the crack was replaced during the routine maintenance of the Bell-430, the sources, on conditions of anonymity, said. There were a couple of occasions when wrong coordinates were fed into the helicopter���s system because of which the aircraft, carrying the VIP, had to hover in air in search of the helipad for making a safe landing, they said.

The Bell-430 is equipped with at least two radio systems, weather radar and emergency locator transmitter, among other sophisticated equipment, and is certified for day and night operations.