New rules crashes after 2022 are still less than international norms: experts | Bharat News
Dehradun: Kedarnath has no air traffic control, no radar coverage, and no real -time season monitoring – yet helicopters fly inside and outside during the journey, rely on visual signals and radio calls in one of India’s most dangerous air corridors.Before DGCA stepped in last week and earned the helicopter trimming nine per hour, it was seen as 250-300 sorting per day in the sky on Kedarnath. After the implementation of the new regulation, the district administration said that 152 sorters were held on Saturday.“It is a highly risky area, which has zero aviation infrastructure,” said a senior helicopter pilot with an experience of over a decade on the Char Dham Circuit. “No ATC, no radar, no on-ground IMD appearance. Pilots are blind flying.”
After a uniform fatal accident in 2022, the authorities announced several steps. Rahul Choubey, the nodal officer of the Chopper Services, stated that the TOI three fixed cameras were installed on the Kedar route – in the entry point, Rudra point and base camp – to help the pilots assess the conditions before flying. UCADA also introduced an airwelling operating system to monitor flight operations.But experts said that those measures are much less than international security criteria. In its report on the 2022 accident, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau of the Bureau of Crisis Investigation noted the absence of aviation-grade forecast and centralized flight coordination. Flights were managed only without operator-level communication and any regulatory inspection by UCADA-Slot.Raman Jeet Singh, wife of Captain Anil Singh, who died in the 2022 accident, told TOI, “These are not a terrible accident. My husband flew without radar or area-mapping in unexpected weather. This is always a gambling. ,A proposed MoU between UCADA and IMD never became physical to establish a dedicated meteorological station in Kedarnath. Bikram Singh, director of the Regional Meteorological Center, told TOI, “The MoU cannot be signed as Kedarnath does not have an ATC.”
