Bengaluru:
Three of the four Dhruv helicopter crashes in the Indian Navy and Coast Guard, which have happened since 2023, have not been caused by manufacturing or design defects by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, says Dr. DK Sunil, the Chairman and Managing Director of HAL.
Frequent crashes of the HAL Dhruv chopper, a workhorse across the armed forces, have resulted in frequent fleet-wide groundings pending investigations. In January this year, the Dhruv fleet was grounded for the third time since 2023. There are approximately 338 Dhruv choppers in service. The Army and Air Force Dhruvs have since been cleared to fly.
“Out of the four crashes that have happened, three in the Coast Guard and one in the Navy, three of them are because of other reasons. It is not manufacturing; it is not related to the design. There were issues either related to maintenance or in terms of the operation,” said Dr. Sunil in an exclusive interview with NDTV.
However, in the most recent crash of a Coast Guard-operated Dhruv on January 5, 2025, a fracture of a key component, a Non-Rotating Swashplate Bearing (NRSB), was detected. “In the latest (crash) that we had in the Coast Guard, we had a fracture of the NRSB – that is something where we have a defect investigation committee which has gone into it. We saw a very clear distinction – the Army and the Air Force helicopters did not have this kind of defect, so we cleared them. They are flying now.”
A Non-Rotating Swashplate Bearing in a helicopter is a component in the helicopter’s rotor system. This lies within the swashplate assembly, which is a mechanical component of the rotor system. The NRSB controls the pitch of the rotor blades to manage lift, direction, and stability of the helicopter.
“We brought in all the gearboxes and we had a thorough check to see if there was any cracks. And we found that there was nothing in the Army and Air Force. In the Naval variant, we have looked at whether it was corrosion, stress, and so on. We also did deck landings. The usage pattern was different from the Air Force and the Army. So, we went to Vizag and did deck landings under rough sea conditions,” says the HAL Chairman. “That data has come now. The defect investigation committee is going to meet shortly. I think now, we will get a picture of what is the root cause and what we need to do. The defect investigation we should be able to close this month and then we will start to see if there is a modification or a one-time check, we will start that immediately.”
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