Aviation Ministry Launches Helicopter Standards Directorate; Chardham Yatra Safety Plan By September After Kedarnath Crash
Just a few days after the tragic helicopter crash in Kedarnath, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) launched a specialised flight standards directorate for helicopters to draft guidelines for operations. While the ministry aims to increase the country’s helicopter fleet by four times in the next 15 years, it aims to come up with an innovative solution to enhance safety for Chardham Yatras by September.
Just three days after the tragic accident of Air India’s flight AI-171, a chartered helicopter bearing registration number VT-BKA had crash landed near Gaurikund early morning while returning from Kedarnath to Guptkashi. All the seven people on board, including a pilot and an infant passenger, were killed in the tragic crash.
At the seventh edition of Helicopter and Small Aircraft Summit organised by MoCA and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday, the union civil aviation ministry inaugurated the flight standards directorate (FSD) for rotary-wing aircraft, for helicopters. Earlier, the ministry’s FSD used to design flight standards for all types of aircraft which now has been bifurcated into two categories including FSD fixed-wing aircraft and FSD rotary-wing aircraft. The plan for a helicopter-focused FSD was announced by union civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu at the previous year’s summit held in Shillong.
The directorate, under the DGCA, will provide single-window regulatory oversight, address helicopter-specific safety and certification issues and assist operators with procedural requirements. “Helicopters and small aircraft are backbone of regional connectivity. No part of the country remains unconnected with the heart and soul of the country. The new FSD will nurture the helicopter ecosystem in a structured manner by addressing helicopter-related safety and procedural requirements,” Kinjarapu said.
Naidu mentioned that the ministry aims at increasing the country’s fleet to over 1,000 helicopters in the next 15 years, which is a four times increase over the current fleet size of over 250 helicopters. He mentioned that due to the UDAN scheme, a 30min helicopter ride which previously costed around Rs1.25 lakh to 1.5 lakh, now costs around Rs.30,000 bringing per person cost down to Rs3,500.
After curtailing the helicopter operations for the Chardham Yatra pilgrimage, the ministry is looking at options for enhanced surveillance and innovative air traffic management and processing of weather data to help the helicopters fly safely in hilly regions. As more than 3 lakh people perform the Chardham Yatra pilgrimage annually through helicopters, which are not guided by the air traffic control, the ministry aims to come up with innovative solutions by September to enhance safety with increased operations.
“For Indian civil aviation, safety has been the primary foundation. The traffic air traffic management in such hilly areas is a little bit challenging where there is no signal. So we are going to use the next two to three months especially to enhance the safety aspect in those areas,” the minister said adding that helicopter emergency medical services are being strengthened to ensure air ambulances become a common facility, particularly in hilly and remote regions.
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