NEW DELHI, Aug 11:
Jeopardising aviation safety, State-owned Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited (PHHL) has been operating chopper services at important pilgrim and tourist destinations from unapproved helipads, the CAG has said.
As on June 30 last year, PHHL was operating helicopters from helipads or airfields at Phata (Amarnath), Katra, Port Blair, Gangtok, Patna, Koraput and Gadchiroli, “without any licence or approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA),” the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said in its report, tabled in Parliament last week.
It also said that in Arunachal Pradesh, where PHHL has been operating since 1989, none of the airfields or helipads were licenced or approved.
As per Rule 78 (1) of Aircraft Rules 1937, no aerodrome can be used as regular place of landing and departure by a scheduled air transport service or for a series of landings and departures by any aircraft carrying passengers or cargo unless it has been licenced or approved by the DGCA.
A committee appointed by the Civil Aviation Ministry to probe the April 2011 crash of a PHHL MI-172 helicopter at Tawang killing 17 people, had also stated that this rule was applicable not only to aerodromes but also to helipads and it was the responsibility of the operator to ensure that its helicopters landed only at licenced helipads, the CAG said.
Besides Arunachal Pradesh, PHHL operates flights to Meghalaya, Tripura, Sikkim, Nagaland and also for the Union Home Ministry in Guwahati in the northeast.
The Civil Aviation Ministry’s probe panel had also charged Pawan Hans of “overlooking flight standards and safety protocols”, the CAG report said.
“Thus in the absence of requisite licence or approval, the safety of these aerodrome/helipads was questionable,” the Government auditor said. (PTI)
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