Mumbai: In India’s third charter aircraft accident this year, a Pawan Hans helicopter carrying 7 persons ditched in shallow waters near Maya Bunder in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands on Tuesday morning. Unlike the 2 other fatal accidents involving non-scheduled operators, all passengers and crew in the Pawan Hans crash were safe.The Pawan Hans Dauphin N3 helicopter (VT-PHY) took off from Sri Vijaya Puram (Port Blair) at around 8.30 am for Rangat and onward to Maya Bunder, said Pawan Hans in a statement. The aircraft landed at Rangat at about 9.05 am and departed again around 9.10 am for Maya Bunder.“The helicopter ditched about 300 metres short of the Maya Bunder helipad in shallow sea water at around 9.30 am. There were 5 passengers with 2 crew on board,” the company said, adding that all were on board and were “safely retrieved”.An aviation source said, “Officials from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) and Pawan Hans reached the islands today; some will reach by tomorrow. The AAIB initiated an investigation.”The aircraft, a Eurocopter Dauphin (S365), operating with call sign PH2, was commanded by Capt Anil Janu, with Capt T P S Gulia as co-pilot.The helicopter reportedly maintained an altitude of 2,500 feet after departure from Rangat for Mayabunder. “The last known position of the aircraft before ditching was near Dhobidera, close to Mayabunder,” said a source.Over 12 hours before this accident, another crash occurred in Jharkhand in which an air ambulance operated by Redbird Airways crashed and killed all the 7 people onboard.Less than a month ago, on Jan 28, a Learjet aircraft operated by VSR Ventures crashed during landing at Baramati airport, killing Maharashtra’s then deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and 4 others. Apart from accidents involving non-scheduled operators, there was another accident involving a flying club, Redbird Aviation. Earlier this month, a Cessna 172 (VT-EUC) belonging to Redbird Aviation, a flying training organisation, crash-landed in Vijayapura after it ran out of fuel. The instructor and the trainee pilots sustained serious injuries but survived.
