New Delhi: The helicopter, which crashed last
September claiming the life of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y
S R Reddy and four other persons, was "probably not airworthy"
but this was not a contributing factor to the accident, an
inquiry has found.
The probe panel, headed by Pawan Hans chief R K Tyagi,
also established that there was "no evidence" to indicate any
interference in the flight operations by the VIP on board.
The primary cause of the crash of the Bell-403 chopper on
September 2 last year was the error of the crew, which after
noticing a fault in the oil transmission pressure "was
engrossed for vital six minutes before the impact in searching
for the relevant checklist from the Flight Manual".
The report pointed out that the number one engine of the
chopper had experienced two technical problems on earlier
flights which required maintenance action before the
helicopter was released for the next flight.
The maintenance engineers and the flight crew "ignored
this advisory before operating the flight on September two."
But both the engines operated normally and remained
capable of producing the required power till the time of the
crash, the enquiry committee found.
"Thus the helicopter was probably not airworthy when it
was released for flight on September 2, even though it was not
a contributory factor to the accident," the report said.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, January 23, 2010, 00:03