Arunachal: Search for black box of the army helicopter

Black Box Of Army Helicopter

Itanagar: The Army has launched a search operation to find the black box of the Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) that crashed in Arunachal Pradesh on Friday, killing five personnel, officials said. .

A black box is a device that records all flight information that can help determine the cause of an accident.
Personnel of 21 Para (Special Force) from Assam’s Jorhat were deployed to the crash site near Mugung, about 35 km from the China border, on Saturday to recover the black box.

An official said on Sunday that the area is densely forested, which is hampering the search for the black box.
The ALH, carrying five army personnel including two pilots, was on a routine flight when it crashed at 10.43 am on Friday.

The bodies of four officials were recovered from the crash site in a densely forested hilly area on Friday evening, while the fifth body was found the next day.

Defense spokesperson Lt Col AS Walia said that prior to the accident, air traffic control (ATC) had received a mayday call from the ALH pilots indicating a technical or mechanical malfunction.

‘Mayday’ is the word used all over the world to call in an emergency, usually on a ship or aircraft over radio communication.

The army headquarters ordered a court of inquiry to find out the causes of the accident.
According to officials, the weather was good for flying operations on Friday and both pilots had a combined flight experience of more than 1,800 hours.

The Army helicopter, also known as HAL Rudra, had taken off from Lakkali in Lower Siang district.

The HAL Rudra is an attack helicopter developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Indian Army. It is a Weapon System Integrated (WSI) Mk-IV variant of the Dhruv ALH and is the first armed helicopter to be indigenously developed in India.This is the second accident involving an army helicopter in Arunachal Pradesh this month.

A Cheetah helicopter crashed in Tawang district on October 5, killing one of its two pilots.

According to official records, 13 accidents have occurred in Arunachal Pradesh since 1995, and 47 people have died in them.