Three Coast Guard air crew killed in Guj chopper crash
Three Coast Guard personnel, including two pilots, were killed in a helicopter crash at Gujarat’s Porbandar airport on Sunday. The Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) of the Indian Coast Guard was returning from a routine sortie when it crashed while trying to land on the runaway, killing Commandant Saurabh, Deputy Commandant SK Yadav and Navik Manoj Pradhan.
This is the second fatal crash of the Coast Guard’s ALH fleet in four months. In September last year, three personnel on board a copter on a medical evacuation mission were killed after it crashed into the Arabian Sea, 45 km off Porbandar.
The Ministry of Defence on Sunday said an ALH Mark-III helicopter met with a mishap at Porbandar airport runway at 12:15 pm. “Two pilots and a crew member were taken to hospital where they were declared brought dead,” the MoD said, adding an inquiry had been set up to look into the circumstances leading to the crash.
The ALH, developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), is a versatile, twin-engine utility helicopter designed for both military and civilian roles. It has been in service since 2002 and is widely used by the Indian forces for transport, search and rescue, medical evacuation, reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare.
The ALH has four variants — ALH Mark 1, Mark 2, Mark 3 and ALH-WSI. All four are twin-engine variants. Across these variants, two types of engines are used. The ones in the Mark III and ALH-WSI versions have more powerful engine, called Shakti. It is co-developed by the HAL and Safran of France. The copter that crashed on Sunday had Shakti engine.
