Nishikant Khajuria
KATRA, Nov 24: A day after the tragic chopper crash, in which six pilgrims and the woman Pilot were killed, a team of Director General Civil Aviation (DGCA) visited the site of mishap at Katra, the base camp of world famous Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine.
The visiting Aircraft Accident Investigating Bureau (AAIB) team of DGCA extensively inspected wreckage of the crashed chopper of private airliner Himalayan Heli Service and collected some samples. An accompanying team of Police and FSL also took five samples of the wreckage, said SSP Reasi, Sujit Kumar.
Besides recording statements of some eyewitnesses of the crash, postmortem of the vulture, that hit the chopper thus causing the tragic mishap, was also conducted by Veterinary Doctor, he added.
The AAIB team, comprising of Assistant Director Air Safety, Jasbir Singh and Deputy Director Rajendran, remained at the site of crash for around five hours and they will again visit the spot tomorrow morning.
In the meantime, on the instructions of Governor N N Vohra, who is also Chairman of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, the CEO, Shrine Board A K Sahu approached the DGCA to separately conduct detailed Safety Audit of the Heli operations between Katra-Sanjichat-Katra Sector. A separate team of DGCA reached at Katra today and started conducting audit on various air safety norms such as airworthiness of the helicopters, operation and maintenance procedure being followed by the operators.
The operators who had suspended the heli operations as a precautionary measure, have resumed operations with trial flights today which shall continue tomorrow before starting routine flights, said an official spokesman of the Shrine Board.
The crash had taken place yesterday soon after the 2010-make chopper of Himalayan Heli Service took off carrying six pilgrims from Katra helipad for Sanjhichat in Trikuta hills. The deceased persons included woman Pilot, a newly married couple and a six-year old girl along with her father.
Even as preliminary investigations revealed that a vulture had hit the chopper thus leading to the crash, the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) instituted an inquiry, which will probe reasons for the incident.
The District Magistrate Reasi, Sushma Chauhan, also constituted a fact finding inquiry committee today to look into the causes and circumstances of the crash. Headed by the DM, the inquiry committee comprised of SDM Katra, Executive Engineer PDD, Reasi, AEE PHE Mechanical Division, Reasi and Tehsildar Katra as members.
Meanwhile, the Yatra to the Holy Shrine is proceeding normally and heavy rush of pilgrims is seen going on foot, ponies and palkis.
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