Flying power

Upkeep: Officials from Mumbais Juhu aerodrome,which is used for commercial helicopter operations,say that there is hardly any official check on helicopter movements from the city,mostly because the air safety department of the DGCAs Western Region office is severely understaffed.  Our helicopter is airworthy and  we have all our papers in order, said Sudhir Thakre,Secretary of Civil Aviation,General Administrative Department.

On May 19,2008,a Global Vectra helicopter did an emergency touchdown right in the middle of the Juhu airport runway after one of its two engines had to be shut down.

On February 9,2009,Air Indias IC-866 narrowly missed collision with helicopter 2 of President Pratibha Patils helicopter troupe at Mumbai airport.

kavitha Iyer

Chhattisgarh

Fleet: A $6.5-million Agusta A-109 Power chopper.

Upkeep: The state government has decided to make available a satellite phone when Chief Minister Raman Singh travels by air and to avoid taking the risk of flying during bad weather. The decision was taken at a high-level meeting,chaired by Chief Ministers Principal Secretary N Baijendra Kumar,to review security arrangements in the wake of helicopter crash that killed the Andhra CM.

On july 14,2007,the state government chopper Maina,a Eurocopter EC-35,took off from Bhopal with an engineer and technician on board along with the pilot and co-pilot. As the chopper did not reach Raipur,a frantic search began in the forest areas of MP and Chhattisgarh,with speculation that the helicopter had landed in a Naxalite-infested area. However on the fifth day,the helicopters mangled remains and four badly burned dead bodies were found on Mahurkhodrain hillock in Balaghat district. Investigations revealed that the chopper had deviated from its route due to heavy rains and low visibility.

In August,2008,a Bell-430 owned by Ran Airways,crashed on Kodigutta hills near Venkatapuram in Khammam district of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. It was on its way from Hyderabad to Jagdalpur for refuelling,after which it was supposed to fly to Ranchi and pick up BJP president Rajnath Singh. The crashed helicopter was found after three months with the decomposed remains of the four people who were onboard.  

Joseph John

Karnataka

Fleet: Though Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and some ministers frequently heli-hop around the state,the government of Karnataka does not own any helicopter. However,the government has entered a lease agreement for a HAL-made Advanced Light Helicopter or Dhruv while also chartering private helicopters for use by the CM. Yeddyurappa,incidentally,has run up a helicopter bill in excess of Rs 4 crore since coming to power in May 2008.

In May 2007,the then chief minister H D Kumaraswamys hired helicopter was reported missing after taking off from Bangalore. Hit by rough weather the chopper made an emergency landing in a field near Chamarajanagar and was found after a frantic hour.

On April 17,2004,the crash of a small plane,a Cessna 2004,resulted in the death of popular Kannada actress Soundarya and three others near Bangalore. The actress was flying to Karimnagar in Andhra Pradesh to campaign for elections.

Johnson T A

Uttarakhand

Fleet: One Eurocopter-made EC-135 twin-engine helicopter which is used mainly by the Governor and the CM.

Upkeep: According to P C Sharma,Secretary (Civil Aviation),The helicopter is specially made for the hilly terrain. It has proved itself while flying to places like Badrinath,Auli and elsewhere. Sharma says that the chopper has not given any trouble since its procurement in 2004. He further adds that it is being maintained and overhauled regularly.  

Rajeev Khanna

Himachal Pradesh

Fleet: While the state was using Mescos 26-seater helicopter (MI-172) for VVIP flights for over a decade,last year M/s Simm Samm,a Mumbai based company,was given the contract for a twin-engine MD-900 chopper,which has been in use since July 2009. The Mesco helicopter has been returned.

Upkeep: Ajay Bhandari,Secretary,General Administration Department,says the government has ensured that the company strictly follows the guidelines for safety and maintenance and that the chopper does not clock more than 40 flying hours in a month. The Chief Minister has been avoiding the use of helicopter during the monsoon months except when the sky is clear, he added.

Punjab Governor Surinder Nath,who was also holding Himachal Pradeshs charge,died when a Super-King B-200 plane crashed on July 9,1994,when he was flying to Kullu-Manali. His wife and son also perished in the crash. Since there was a heavy cloud formation over the Panarsa hills,the plane hit a mountain peak.

Ashwani Sharma

Jharkhand

Fleet: The states flying machines a twin-engine Dhruv helicopter,single-engine G-line aircraft and an IS-28 M2 motor glider,worth Rs 137 crore collectively have been gathering dust. After Presidents rule was imposed on January 19,the then governor Syed Sibtey Razi,who was among many top functionaries who,as per the PIL admitted by the Jharkhand High Court,faced the charge of misusing the Dhruv chopper which was purchased with the police modernisation fund.

Upkeep: With the recent tragedy,fingers are being pointed at the regime of the Governor K Sankaranarayanan,with BJPs state unit president Raghuvar Das accusing it of leaving the aircraft to rot. The response of the state government officials was evasive. Anything related with aircrafts is a technical matter. We are on the lookout for pilots and technicians, said a senior officer of the Aviation Department on condition of anonymity.

Manoj Prasad 

Punjab

Fleet: The state government has leased a Dauphin helicopter from Pawan Hans since 1993. The old chopper was replaced with a new Dauphin N-3 last year.

Upkeep: Following YSRs crash,the Civil Aviation Department has sent reminders to all Deputy Commissioners in the state and to Pawan Hans regarding safety precautions to be taken for VVIP flights.

On August 30,Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal had a narrow escape,as the Bell-230 private helicopter of Prem Air he was travelling in from Delhi to Jalalabad had to undertake an emergency landing,after the gear got stuck.

Captain Amarinder Singh has had two close calls during his stint as CM,when the official helicopter had to undertake emergency landings. The first incident took place in 2005 when Amarinder was coming to Chandigarh from Himachal Pradesh. As the seal in the engine leaked,it landed in a school ground near Pinjore in Haryana. Then in 2006,Amarinder experienced another forced landing when the choppers roters stuck in electric wires. After an enquiry by the DGCA,the pilot was indicted and he was removed from the post of captain.

HARPREET BAJWA

Madhya Pradesh

Fleet: A Bell-430 (double engine) purchased in 1998 and a Bell-407 (single engine) purchased in 2003.

Upkeep: The choppers are subjected to daily inspections. The state has its own quality control manager and his deputy.

Milind Ghatwai

Haryana

Fleet: A new Rs 33-crore EC-145 from Eurocopter.

Upkeep: Learning a lesson from the helicopter crash in Andhra Pradesh,Haryana Civil Aviation department has mooted a proposal to buy two satellite phones for use in the new government-owned helicopter and the existing Raytheon Super King B200 Beechcraft.  Mobile phones have limited range. In emergencies when there is a need for urgent contact with people,only satellite phones can work, said Samir Mathur,Secretary,Civil Aviation.

Upkeep: The maintenance of the EC-145 helicopter will only be done by the Eurocopter authorised mechanical engineers in Noida.  Haryana has no maintenance centre for aircraft or helicopters.

Two Haryana ministers O P Jindal and Surinder Singh had tragically died in a helicopter crash in March 2005,just twenty days after the Hooda government was sworn in.

RAJENDRA KHATRY

Northeast

Fleet: While none of the governments of the northeastern states own choppers,defence or Pawan Hans helicopters are frequently used by VIPs.

On September 23,2004,10 people were killed when a Dauphin helicopter owned by Pawan Hans flying from Guwahati to Shillong crashed about 15 minutes from take-off. The casualties included Cyprian Sangma,community development minister of Meghalaya two MLAs,and former deputy speaker Aira Marak.

On May 11,2001,Arunachal Pradesh education minister Dera Natung was killed when a Dauphin belonging to Pawan Hans crashed at Sessa in West Kameng district in Arunachal Pradesh.

Former PM Morarji Desai will be remembered as one of the most important survivors of a plane crash in the country,when the Tupolev-124 aircraft he was travelling in crashed at a village near Jorhat in 1977. Five crew members died.  

Samudra Gupta Kashyap 

Orissa

Fleet: The Orissa government does not have its own choppers,but the state Civil Aviation section of the General Administration Department (GAD) hires them from private operators like Mesco,Deccan Aviation and IMFA Group when needed,said Niharendu Lenka,Additional Secretary,GAD.

Upkeep: We hire only the choppers that have been given certificates of air-worthiness by DGCA, said Lenka ,adding there has been no case of accidents involving choppers in the last five years. However,as per details given by the GAD to RTI activist Biswajit Mohanty,the Orissa Government spends at least Rs 1 crore every year on helicopters chartered for the Chief Minister,ministers and select bureaucrats.

Debabrata Mohanty

Kerala

Fleet: The state does not have a state-owned helicopter for the use of the Chief Minister or ministers. However,the government has given its in-principal nod for procuring a chopper for rescue operations.

Shaju Philip

Uttar Pradesh

Fleet: Of the two twin-engine helicopters,one Bell-230 is less than three years old while the other decade-old Bell-230 has been sent to Singapore for refurbishment, said Ravindra Singh,Principal Secretary,Civil Aviation.

Upkeep: Singh added,Our fleet is in good health. We have reviewed the state of alertness and response time to incidents like the one in Andhra Pradesh. The ADG (Law and order) A K Jain,meanwhile,said that the UP Police would seek the details of the investigation behind the causes of Andhra crash and that the states security and intelligence agencies would draw lessons from the findings.

A tragedy that remains fresh in memory is the 2001 death of Madhavrao Scindia he was killed when the single-engine small aircraft flying him to Kanpur from Delhi crashed near Mainpuri.  

VIRENDRA NATH Bhatt

Bihar

Fleet: The state government has engaged a Pawan Hans helicopter.

Upkeep: Asked if the government would need a security review after the YSR incident,Bihar Civil Aviation Principal Secretary Girish Shankar said: We carry inspections after every 50 or 100 hours of flight. The certifications by the air companies concerned are subject to periodic review.

Santosh Singh

Rajasthan

Fleet: One Agusta A 109-E Power chopper,which has been in service since 2005.

Upkeep: Following the mishap in Andhra,Harish Bhatnagar,Deputy Secretary,Civil Aviation,says that the state will continue to follow DGCA regulations and directions diligently and carry out safety checks in a timely manner. 

Apurva

Jammu and Kashmir 

Fleet: Besides one state aircraft,the state government also runs a 2006 model Augusta 109 helicopter for the CM and VIPs and a 2001 model Bell-407 chopper is used to take essential commodities to remote areas and for evacuating people during accidents or calamities.   

Upkeep: The state Civil Aviation Department has an engineering wing,which carries out the daily maintenance of the aircraft and choppers. For major maintenance work,the state government refers the machine to Deccan Aviation. 

In 2003,a chopper on its way from Amaranth cave shrine to Srinagar met with an accident when it hit a tree at Ganderbal in Kashmir. Besides the commissioner,Civil Aviation,S S Kahlon,who was running the aircraft,four others were killed. 

ishfaq naseem

West Bengal

Fleet: Since Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is averse to using helicopters,the state chopper lay unused for more than five years and the government ultimately sold it off. However,the state government is bringing in another chopper on lease from Pawan Hans a seven-seater,twin-engine Dauphin.

Sabyasachi Bandopadhyay