Panic has been spread over the negligence and inefficiency in the security cover of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who is having Z Plus category protection, after the standby helicopter intended for him collapsed near Pune.
A 16-year-old helicopter was brought in without checking the capacity and violating security norms. The helicopter that came from Mumbai as a standby for the helicopter hired by the state government met with an accident at Pune.
Chandrababu after coming to power is continuing the same helicopter that was hired by the previous government. It has to be serviced after every 1000 hours of travel. GMR, which provides the helicopter, sent it to Mumbai for servicing. Arrangements have been made to send another helicopter to Andhra Pradesh for standby before the service is completed.
However, there are criticisms that the concerned authorities monitoring Chandrababu’s travel do not have the skills to assess the helicopter’s capacity and performance and that the rules are not followed. In fact, there are rules that helicopters with more than 10 years of service cannot be hired.
Also officials should take note of the weather condition. But the aviation authorities ignored these and took permission from a company called Global Vectra to land the VT-GVI, AW139 2008 model helicopter in Vijayawada on 24th of this month. On the same day they decided to get it from Mumbai to Hyderabad and then to Vijayawada.
But while coming from Mumbai, the helicopter crashed from a very low altitude at Pod village in Pune district. Experts are concerned about the helicopter being completely destroyed when it falls from such a low height. It is said that such an accident happened due to lack of awareness on the part of the aviation officials who selected the helicopter.
Many are commenting that this situation has arisen because officials who do not have much knowledge of aviation are at the helm of affairs. After YS Rajasekhar Reddy’s helicopter accident, the state government authorities used to take special care of helicopters. But it is said that this situation has arisen due to the lack of awareness of the officials appointed after the YCP government came.