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Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s Advanced Light Helicopter Mk III (ALH Mk III). HAL Photo

Indian ALH Dhruv fleet grounded after fatal crash

By KP Sanjeev Kumar | January 13, 2025

Estimated reading time 3 minutes, 47 seconds.

A HAL Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Mark III of the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) crashed at Porbandar airport in the western state of Gujarat, Jan. 5, killing two pilots and one member of aircrew. As per a statement released to the press, the mishap happened during a training flight on CG 859, an ALH Mk III from 835 Squadron (CG), Porbandar. This helicopter was one of 32 ALHs (16 each to the ICG and Indian Navy) delivered between 2021 and 2023.

As per a report in Indian media corroborated by civil operators of the ALH, the manufacturer, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), has recommended that flying be suspended on the ALH fleet (totalling about 338 across civil, military and coast guard users) after preliminary analysis of the flight data recorder showed that the helicopter did not respond to pilot control inputs seconds before it hit the ground.

The ALH fleet has been grounded in the past for various reasons, including failure of flight control actuators that led to loss of control. The latest crash marks the third hull loss (second fatal) for the ICG in the newly inducted Mk III fleet. CG 863 from the same squadron had crashed into the sea off Porbandar on Sept. 2, 2024, while on a night medevac mission, killing three crewmembers.

The brand-new ALH Mk III fleet of the Indian Navy and ICG has seen steady attrition since induction in 2021, with four of 32 airframes already lost to crashes. In March 2023, IN 709 safely ditched off Mumbai, reportedly due to failure of a control rod in the “collective” circuit. After this accident and the fleetwide grounding that followed, urgent removal, inspection and reinstallation of control rods was called for by HAL, even as a parallel committee was set up by Bengaluru-based Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC) to look into a series of such failures. HAL had moved to replace the suspect control actuators with stainless steel actuators as a “design improvement.” It is not confirmed yet if CG 859 was equipped with the new control actuators, but it is likely it was.

The fleetwide grounding comes at an arguably inopportune time. The indigenous ALH were expected to perform in big numbers at two high-profile events in the coming weeks — India’s annual Republic Day flypast (Jan. 26) and biennial aviation exposition Aero India (Feb. 10 to 14). The military variant of these helicopters forms the backbone of air logistics and communication tasks performed by the Indian armed forces from sea level to super high altitude. A board of inquiry has been ordered by ICG to investigate the circumstances leading to the crash of CG 859. It is learnt that teams from HAL are also working onsite at Porbandar and at their Bengaluru headquarters, alongside the ICG accident investigation team. No further updates have been provided by the ICG or HAL at the time of publication.

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