Several steps have been taken in the past few years to improve safety of helicopter operations in the region.
| Photo Credit:
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Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has enhanced the surveillance of Char Dham charter operations.
This comes in the wake of a helicopter crash which resulted in death of six pilgrims in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi district last week.
The pilot operating the Bell 407 helicopter too died in the accident.
While the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is probing the crash, DGCA is intensifying its oversight. The helipads used by choppers operating charter flights for the Char Dham Yatra are managed by the Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCADA). The authority also selects the helicopter operators which provide shuttle services to the Kedarnath shrine.
On Monday, DGCA asked UCADA to ensure compliance of a checklist prior to each flight departure. This will consist of details of the pilot operating the helicopter, airworthiness, safety and other aspects.
Additional inspections or audit of operations are also expected following last week’s crash. This could help identify loopholes in current regulations and ensure better compliance, a source said.
Several steps have been taken in the past few years to improve safety of helicopter operations in the region. These include installation of high resolution cameras for real time monitoring of weather, additional checks and training assessment of pilots who operate on the routes. These were put in place after accidents in 2022 and 2023.
Terrain and weather pose a challenge to chopper operators in the hilly region and thus, engine efficiency is impacted at higher altitudes and pilots also have to factor in weather, temperature etc before finalising payload for any particular flight.
Published on May 14, 2025
Several steps have been taken in the past few years to improve safety of helicopter operations in the region.
| Photo Credit:
–
Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has enhanced the surveillance of Char Dham charter operations.
This comes in the wake of a helicopter crash which resulted in death of six pilgrims in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi district last week.
The pilot operating the Bell 407 helicopter too died in the accident.
While the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is probing the crash, DGCA is intensifying its oversight. The helipads used by choppers operating charter flights for the Char Dham Yatra are managed by the Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCADA). The authority also selects the helicopter operators which provide shuttle services to the Kedarnath shrine.
On Monday, DGCA asked UCADA to ensure compliance of a checklist prior to each flight departure. This will consist of details of the pilot operating the helicopter, airworthiness, safety and other aspects.
Additional inspections or audit of operations are also expected following last week’s crash. This could help identify loopholes in current regulations and ensure better compliance, a source said.
Several steps have been taken in the past few years to improve safety of helicopter operations in the region. These include installation of high resolution cameras for real time monitoring of weather, additional checks and training assessment of pilots who operate on the routes. These were put in place after accidents in 2022 and 2023.
Terrain and weather pose a challenge to chopper operators in the hilly region and thus, engine efficiency is impacted at higher altitudes and pilots also have to factor in weather, temperature etc before finalising payload for any particular flight.
Published on May 14, 2025
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It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution
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