Aizawl: With a few crashes in Pawan Hans’ recent aviation history, the question of public safety looms large on India’s lone helicopter company which is all set to resume services in the hilly state of Mizoram from August 14.
Asking the Mizoram government to “look before it leaps”, the opposition Zoram Nationalist Party stressed that public safety should be given top priority in view of “serious violations of safety norms” committed by Pawan Hans which had led to a crash in Arunachal Pradesh last year.
Tawang district bordering China witnessed two chopper crashes last year – one on April 19 which claimed 19 lives and the other on April 30 that killed former chief minister Dorjee Khandu, along with four others.
The ZNP pointed out other crashes that the state-owned helicopter firm had met with during the last few years. Another Pawan Hans helicopter met with tragedy on September 22, 2004 in Meghalaya in which 10 people, including Meghalaya’s chief minister’s father-in-law, died.
A number of people who were interviewed on Sunday said they would not feel safe to fly in Pawan Hans helicopter, especially during bad weather.
In a bid to allay public fears, Wing Commander (rtd) Lalzawma, principal consultant to the state’s civil aviation wing, said, “Why so concerned about Pawan Hans crashes as other helicopters and planes too have met with air crashes? Accident can happen with anyone. Nothing can be predicted in aviation.”
Another official said the government was well aware with air crashes that Pawan Hans helicopters had met with during the last few years. “However,” he added, “the helicopter that will operate in Mizoram is an all-weather twin-engine special chopper, which is of an improved and more powerful chopper using state-of-the-art safety technology. It is considered to be much safer that the helicopters which have crashed.”(UNI)