Paramilitary ALH Dhruv Crashes, Three Killed

A HAL Dhruv helicopter crashed today, killing its three-man crew from India’s paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF). This was the fifth crash of the indigenous helicopter (not counting hard landings) — the last, in which four Indian Army personnel perished, was in April in India’s North-East. A court of inquiry has been ordered into the incident. R.I.P. pilots Thomas, S.P. Singh and technician Manoj Soin.

Photo / Rahul Devnath

18 thoughts on “Paramilitary ALH Dhruv Crashes, Three Killed”

  1. Sad,RIP to all.Wonder if it was an older series or later one.Vibration and tail section issue have been there in models using earlier batches composite material.Lets hope we can take lessons and rectify the problems if any.There is also an issue of the area,just a few days ago there was an alert of Naxals aiming to target helos.

  2. RIP brave soldiers.

    @Indian – Minority or majority the guy was indian .Keep your wierd thoughts on different religions to yourself.

  3. Indian….what is your problem? Should not allow minority to fly…are you in your senses? Rather than saying that we should allow most capable people to take such positions you are dragging it into majority, minority feud.Blame Pilots, blame HAL, blame weather…anything but where does minority and being a mallu comes into picture

    Shiv – I take strong exception to you personal discretion to allow such careless comment to slip through your watchful eyes. I am not aware of metrics that your blog command, but careless comments like this certainly damage credibility of your blog.

    Sumeet

  4. Was it a Pilot Error ?
    Or the Hostile Terrain.
    Or something Wrong with this Machines?
    Whatever might be the Reason, image of our Indegenous Chopper is taking a Bashing.
    HAL should have went for a Joint Venture.

  5. Considering everything- years since introduction,the numbers produced,the profile -dusty,low level, frequent landings- usually flown,the crash has nothing to raise a"Bobbery"( baap Re!) about except of course the lives lost. The conjecture that there is a structural problem cannot be the prime suspect. Helicopters flown as we do tend to have their compressors caked causing stalls. This is the likely cause.
    In fact the ALH, unlike the much tom tomed LCA project has the hall marks of a classical good project. It had the right mix of technology-hingeless rotors,composites,glass cockpit, twin engine gear box et al,the technology acquisition was professionally managed, significant changes in specifications were handled without a murmur, the prototypes were flown reasonably on time and now the product is in mass production with exports and new derivatives steadily coming out. One wishes tha DRDO handled its LCA project in the same style though I am sure people will tell me that the ALH is atincan compared to the oh-so -sophisticated LCA.Get real!It is never the technology not is the spirit!

  6. @Indian
    You are a a hopeless social retard.Kindly keep your "logical" reasoning to your self. Just for your information a major chunk of these minorities are the back bone of Indian R&D.

  7. @Indian: I am deleting your comment (I dont know how I let it through). If you ever post bigoted nonsense here, you'll have no voice here on the blog, rest assured.

  8. wake up HAL wake up these choppers are not bought for crash tests this is the fifth one if you cannot deliver then engage a expert partner with HAL

  9. yes..please give some money to a private firm
    our arm chair analysts have figured out that this was a problem with the chopper!!!

    RIP brave men!!

  10. When operating in dangerous terrian, environment these things happen. These are soldiers and Dhruv is a war machine….expect losses.

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  12. http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=116111

    Pending findings of Court of Inquiry set up by Ministry of Defence, Ecuador, consisting of representatives from Ecuadorian Army and Navy into the cause of the two recent accidents of Dhruva, Ecuador Air Force has suspended flying their Dhruva Helicopters. A High Level Delegation from HAL has visited Ecuador and offered support.

    Customer constitutes a Court of Inquiry to enquire into any accidents in military aircraft. Indian Air Force had constituted court of inquiries into all the three accidents of Dhruv helicopters. Based on the first court of inquiry into the accident of February, 2007 and the second accident in October, 2011 a Control Saturation Warning System has been developed which is progressively being fitted into the helicopters. The Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv is certified to International Standard as per DEF-STAN 00-0970 and nearly 200 Dhruv helicopters have been produced till date and are being operated by military and civil operators in India and abroad.

    This information was given by Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh in a written reply to Shri Rahul Shewale and Shri Vinayak Bhaurao Raut in Lok Sabha today.

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