Aviation ministry orders probe into BSF aircraft crash, role of ATC to be examined

New Delhi: The Ministry of Civil Aviation has ordered an inquiry into the Border Security Force (BSF) crash that occurred Monday morning near Dwarka in Delhi. A small aircraft of the BSF crashed at Shahbad Muhammadpur village in Dwarka near the Delhi airport shortly after it took off. All ten personnel on board including three officials and seven technical staff members were killed in the accident.[caption id=“attachment_2556032” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Investigators at the crash site of the Border Security Force (BSF) plane outside the IGI airport in New Delhi on Tuesday. PTI [/caption] “Authorities are in the process of setting up a Board of Inquiry,” said civil aviation secretary RN Choubey. While BSF sources claimed that the condition of the 21-year-old aircraft Beech Super King Air B-200 was flight worthy, the aviation experts opined that there are several factors involved in the maintenance of an aircraft and the violation of any one of them could have led to the fatal accident. Ironically, the doomed aircraft was flying technicians to get a chopper repaired in Ranchi. Former Director General, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Kanu Gohain told Firstpost, “It’s too premature to draw any probable conclusion or the factor that might have led to the accident. But, there are a couple of important factors on which the investigators must look into.” According to the sources, the accident occurred during reciprocal landing of the twin-engine Super King aircraft, when it hit a tree, then crashed with a boundary wall and landed in a sewage treatment plant near T3 Terminal of the Indira Gandhi International airport. Following are the factors that the investigators will look into to determine the cause or causes leading to the fatal crash: • Performance parameter • Was the aircraft over-loaded (exceeding its limit)? • Was the aircraft properly loaded, keeping with the safety parameters? • Operational factor – any structural failure? The role of ground staff and communication with pilot will also be investigated. • Human factor – background, experience, etc. of the pilot and co-pilot • Emergency situation inside the aircraft • Incidence of fire inside the plane • Loss of power at a particular moment • Problem of maneuverability, which could have caused due to engine failure • Was the aircraft at a sufficient height while maneuvering? Meanwhile, the crash site has been cordoned and the crashed aircraft has been taken to an isolated hanger for investigation. An analysis of cockpit voice recorder and data recorder is expected to reveal the cause of the accident, provided the aircraft had it in place. “It’s mandatory for the commercial transport aircrafts to have voice recorder at the cockpit. In 1994, installation of voice recorder was made recommendatory in nature for these kinds of non-commercial aircrafts. It has to be seen whether there was voice recorder at the cockpit, because it’s the basic tool for the investigators for collecting information. What is bugging me is whether the plane was properly (adhering to safety measures) loaded or not, and whether it exceeded its loading capacity? Prima facie, it seems the centre of gravity of the aircraft got shifted as according to eye-witness it got tilted and lost balance. However, site investigation, reconstruction, analysis of the parts, etc. will tell the true story of the accident,” said Gohain. “It’s the most unfortunate incident. The plane was in proper condition and it was carrying our technicians to Ranchi to repair another plane. The BSF will also conduct its internal inquiry into the mishap,” a BSF source said. The BSF air wing has a fleet of four fixed wing aircraft — one Embraer, two Avros and Super King (SKA B-200), which got crashed, besides 15 helicopters consisting of six MI-17 1V, two advanced Mi-17 V5 choppers, six Advance Light Helicopters (Dhruv) and one Cheetah helicopter operating under the command of the Union home ministry. The Super King was inducted in 1994-95. Not the first time with BSF On May 2011, a BSF helicopter crashed at Sirohi district in Rajasthan and four people died in the mishap. In the same year on October, another BSF chopper crashed in Jharkhand claiming four lives. got killed. On August 1992, a BSF Beech Craft B-200 Super King aircraft crashed in Delhi killing the pilot.