Investigators probing into the Pawan Hans helicopter crash off the city coast last week are expected to submit their initial findings in two weeks, a source has said
Investigators probing into the Pawan Hans helicopter crash off the city coast last week are expected to submit their initial findings in two weeks, a source has said. A three-member committee of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) was earlier expecting to complete its preliminary probe into the causes of the crash this week.
"However, as data from the voice data recorder (VDR) or blackbox could not be decoded here and had to be sent to France; therefore we need more time," a senior AAIB official told PTI today. "We now hope to submit a preliminary report to the ministry on the technical causes of the crash in another 15
days," the official added.
The AAIB, the apex aircraft accident investigation body under the aviation ministry which has a mandate to investigate accidents and serious incidents involving aircraft, began the probe soon after the Pawan Hans chopper crash was confirmed on January 13. The Eurocopter Dauphin N2 hopper crashed off the Mumbai coast minutes after it took off from the Juhu aerodrome for the state-owned oil and gas major, ONGC installations in the Bombay High, killing all seven people on board, including 5 senior ONGC officials.
Pawan Hans is a 51:49 joint venture between the Centre and Oil and Natural Gas Commission and a large part of its 40-odd helicopter fleet is used in the off-shore operations of the oil behemoth. After days of searches, jointly carried by the personnel from the Navy, the Coast Guard as well as from ONGC, all the seven bodies and the technically crucial VDR of the helicopter were recovered.
A three-member committee from AAIB under its deputy director R Passi has been looking into the causes of the Pawan Hans crash, which is 21st in 23 years of the disinvestment-bound aviation firm was set up.
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