26 May,2017 07:02 AM IST | Mumbai | Vinod Kumar Menon
Sources said the helicopter developed a snag and as the pilot was trying to set it down, its blades got caught in overhead wires
CM Devendra Fadnavis's chopper that crash-landed
'Kaahi tari gadbad ahe' (something is wrong) - this is what Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said to his team, with him in the chopper, just seconds before it crash-landed yesterday. "Around 11.57 am, we sat in the chopper, headed to Mumbai; within 20 seconds, we could sense that it had hit something, and suddenly, we had an emergency landing," his social media advisor Ketan Phatak told mid-day.
Along with Fadnavis, Pathak, his additional chief secretary Praveensinh Pardeshi and personal assistant Abhimanyu Pawar were in the chopper, apart from chief pilot Sanjay Karve and a co-pilot.
Fadnavis and his team, including the pilots, then went to the Latur airport and took a flight to Mumbai, where they reached in the evening.
(L-R) Additional chief secretary Praveensinh Pardeshi, chief minister's social media advisor Ketan Pathak and chief pilot Sanjay Karve
Safeguarding the spot
A senior IPS officer said, "Soon after the chopper crash-landed, the local administration instructed that the power be cut in the area, as the chopper had hit one of the overhead cables."
"We have provided bandobast in and around the crash area, a place called Nilanga. Prima facie, it seems there was a technical snag. A team from Investigation of Aircraft Accidents under the DGCA is expected to arrive on Friday from Mumbai and Delhi to study the accident spot. We can move the damaged vehicle only after that," the officer added.
"The pilot (Karve) is a very respected one and has managed to ensure safe landings on a number of occasions, not leading to any casualty and minimising the damage. A portion of the roof of a parked truck was damaged and an overhead cable was broken," the officer added.
When asked if the police questioned the pilot or the co-pilot, the officer replied in the negative, adding, "We have no understanding of the reason behind the crash-landing. We will have to go by the DGCA's findings; our job is to provide the necessary security to ensure that the scene of the accident is not damaged by local villagers."
Multiple theories
A senior pilot said there could be three possibilities that could have led to the incident - miscalculation of the wind direction, overloading of the chopper, or the temperature, which restricted the efficiency of the router blades during take-off.
However, state officials said they preferred not to comment till the DGCA report was out. Karve, director (civil aviation), government of Maharashtra, has been flying for the last 30 years; this was the first time he encountered such an incident.
A source close to Karve said, "It's because of the chief pilot's expertise in flying VIPs that he could manage to land the chopper safely." The DGCA has instructed Karve not to give any media interviews or statements until they record his official statement. Directorate of civic aviation, Maharashtra, said, "It was because of the yearly simulation training in the US, which Karve is undergoing, that he could manage to do a level-latitude landing."
