Why was a VVIP such as Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis given a 22-year-old helicopter to travel? Why did pilots flout standard operating procedures (SOP) while flying the CM from Alibaug to Mumbai?
Devendra Fadnavis
Why was a VVIP such as Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis given a 22-year-old helicopter to travel? Why did pilots flout standard operating procedures (SOP) while flying the CM from Alibaug to Mumbai?
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These are the questions that a DGCA team will seek answers to, while probing a near mishap that was averted because of the CM’s alert security personnel on Friday. Though the CM’s office denied that there was any mishap yesterday, according to P D Malikner, acting collector of Raigad district, Fadnavis had a close brush with the propellers when the chopper suddenly took off just as he was boarding it. The rotating propellers came very close to the CM’s head, but alert security acted swiftly and whisked the CM away.
A top official from the Directorate General Civil Aviation (DGCA) said that the pilot had violated SOP by starting the engine before the VVIP could take a seat. “It doesn’t happen this way. The VVIP must board first and then the pilot should start operating the chopper blades. However, in this case the pilot made a grave mistake,” the officer told mid-day.
Sources in the Directorate General Civil Aviation said a team of experts was expected to start investigations from Saturday.
The the 1995-make copter in question, a Bell 230 twin engine, was hired from a private party because the state’s chopper got damaged in Latur while flying out Fadnavis in the first of three helicopter scares in the last two months.
The pilots said they operated the rotors to adjust the wheels and blamed the lift off on the wind conditions. It was was bought by a private company from the Uttar Pradesh government.
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