| 'Human error causing many accidents involving chopper, planes' | | | New Delhi, Aug 17: A trainer aircraft crashed in Rae Bareli's IGRUA three years ago as the trainee pilot was busy taking pictures, an inquiry has shown with officials saying a large number of accidents involving helicopters and small planes were caused by human error. There were 30 accidents involving helicopters and other aircraft in which 52 people were killed since 2011, with a large number being caused by human error, the officials said today.
While the enquiry reports on 10 of them are still awaited, 13 of the 20 were primarily caused by human error and four for technical reasons. Inclement weather was also a cause in a few of them, they said. Official data showed that 11 accidents occurred in 2011, nine in 2012, eight in 2013 and two till March and in most of these cases, the choppers suffered substantial damage, apart from the 52 fatalities.
On the accident of October 11, 2011 at Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udaan Academy (IGRUA), the probe report said the trainee pilot got "distracted due to his indulgence in taking pictures while making a low pass over the airfield", which led the two-seater Zlin 242 trainer aircraft to hit high tension cables and crash to the ground in an upside position. Luckily no one was killed but the plane was badly damaged. DGCA, which has issued a series of guidelines on operation of choppers and small planes, has said that analysis of these accidents or incidents, as also the past experience of election flying, has revealed that laid down instructions were violated "time and again and safety jeopardised". Among the 'human errors' detected include inadequate skill level of a pilot, error of judgement, adoption of wrong procedures or mishandling of engine control. |
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