Naval copter crashes into sea, 2 saved, 2 missing

BY SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Mar 5, 2013: An Indian Navy helicopter on a routine mission was lost at sea off the Vizag coast on Tuesday.

 While two of the four crew members on board the Chetak helicopter were rescued by search teams that were immediately pressed into service after it went missing, two were yet to be traced.
According to the Eastern Naval Command (ENC), the Chetak 440 copter had taken off from INS Dega, the Naval air station, at about 2 pm on Tuesday on a routine mission around 18 km off Vizag, with four crew members.

A search and rescue operation was initiated when Air Traffic Control lost contact with the helicopter at about 3.30 pm after it failed to return to base at the estimated time. It is said to have developed a technical snag and crashed between the popular Dolphin Nose and Gangavaram Port.

Navy ships, copters, divers join rescue ops

After two of the four crew members on board the Chetak helicopter, that was lost at sea off the Vizag coast were rescued on Tuesday, the Navy has mounted an extensive search in and around the area and has pressed ships, helicopters and divers into service to locate the remaining crew members.

The search would continue even though darkness had fallen over the area. “The search will continue until we find the wreckage of the helicopter and the two remaining crew members,” said commander D.K. Sharma in New Delhi.

The two survivors, identified as Commander Krishna Kumar and Seaman Sahoo, were brought to the naval hospital, INHS Kalyani. The missing crew members were identified as Pradeep Roy and Sanjay Singh.

ENC has also sought assistance of the Visakhapatnam Port authorities and local fishing community.

A board of inquiry has been ordered to establish the causes leading to the accident.The Chetak helicopter, of the 1960s vintage, is normally used for logistic support and surveillance.

In a similar crash in October last year in Panaji, three naval personnel including two pilots died when their copter crashed at the Dabolim airport while landing.

Tuesday’s helicopter crash was the third time that a Navy aircraft has crashed in the last three years.

On June 2, 2010, a Chetak helicopter crashed in the Sarada River near Anakapalle town in Vizag district.

An Eastern Naval Command diver, Kishan Kumar, who was seriously injured in the mishap, died on the way to hospital while the pilot and two other officers survived.

The helicopter was on a route familiarization mission and it hit a high-tension wire while flying low to locate a landing spot to be used in case of emergencies.

In the second accident, on February 17, 2012, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle of the Indian Navy’s Southern Command crashed into a hill at Ganesh Nagar near Gajuwaka RTC depot.

The Israeli made searcher, MK-II UAV, was returning to base after a sortie when it hit the hill and was reduced to ashes within no time. There were no casualties.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Indian Navy helicopter was on “routine mission” when it was lost at sea off the Vizag coast.

Two of the four crew members on board the Chetak helicopter were rescued by search teams.