The Hindu Business Line : Copter in Sonia's entourage crashes

A STRING of high-profile helicopter crashes may have forced the authorities to come up with more stringent laws on operation of helicopters and small aircraft, but the Government decision to advance the dates for the general elections meant that a workshop to be conducted by foreign test pilots to test the "response" of helicopter pilots in emergency situations fell by the way side.

Confirming this, official sources told Business Line that there were plans to bring in internationally well-known test pilots to check the response time of domestic pilots in emergency situations. However, with elections being announced, most of the pilots were called away for flying duty and, therefore, the proposed workshop had to be postponed.

The news comes on the day that a helicopter in the entourage of the Leader of the Opposition, Ms Sonia Gandhi, crashed near Gujarat. Official sources say that preliminary inquiries show that the crash was due to overcrowding in the helicopter. "Initial inquiries show that there were more passengers flying in the helicopter than permitted," official sources said, and added that this could be one of the reasons why there were not enough seatbelts for the passengers.

The helicopter, which crashed on Tuesday, belonged to Delhi-based ACE Airways. According to State Government reports received in Delhi, the helicopter made a "bad landing, shuddered, wobbled and turned twice before the tail touched the ground". Apart from the two pilots there, there were some senior Congress leaders who were flying in the machine that crashed.

Officials indicated that the crash again brings to the fore the fact that helicopter maintenance and security of flying is taken lightly in the country.