Navy halts operations of ALH Dhruv Helicopters after Mumbai accident, HAL to fix its services

New Delhi: State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) informed the stock exchanges on Monday that, "in the wake of the ALH Dhruv accident off the Mumbai coast, the Navy halted the operations of ALH Dhruv Helicopters till the time investigators find the reason for the incident and precautionary checks are carried out."

Further, it notified that "HAL has already initiated steps for working closely with the customers to ensure that the fleet is fully operational."

Background of the incident

On Saturday, an Indian Navy ALH Dhruv during a routine flying mission off the Mumbai coast experienced a sudden loss of power along with a rapid loss of height. The Navy stated that the pilot carried out controlled ditching over water and all the three aircrews exited helicopter safely and were recovered as a part of rescue operation. The ditched helicopter had deployed its emergency floatation gears, it added.

As per media reports, "This marks the first-ever serious accident of Indian Navy’s ALH fleet since the Intensive Flight Trials Unit (IFTU) was first set up at INS Garuda, Kochi, in 2003. While there have been over 17 major accidents of the ALH across other services, the navy and coast guard had not lost a single ALH from their total inventory of 12 Mk-1 (8 IN + 4 CG) and 16-each Mk-3MR. The unblemished record of two decades got a salty wash with an unplanned ditching near Prongs Light, Mumbai."

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