Weather, dense forest shackle hi-tech chopper

Bangalore: The Bell 430, manufactured by Bell Helicopter Textron, US, lost contact with the air traffic control (ATC) at 79 nautical miles from Begumpet in Hyderabad. The interior of the Bell 430 depends upon what mission the helicopter is intended to perform. In all versions, the cockpit is equipped with a Honeywell Automatic Flight Control System . A Rogerson-Kratos glass cockpit and GPS navigation system are available as options.
“All these helicopters, especially flown for VIP and CMs, have a black box, GPS and locator beacons that send signals when the machine crashes . Unfortunately, no one has received any locator signals from the beacons due to bad weather and thickness of the forest. The GPS will only help in navigation and not tracking of the helicopter ,” said an aviation expert. He said, “the only option left is manual search which becomes difficult due to thick forest, heavy rain and Naxalites who live in this area,” he said.
The Bell 430 is powered by two FADEC (full authority digital engine control), equipped with Rolls Royce 250-C 40B turbo shaft engines rated at 780 SHP (shaft horsepower) each.
03/09/09 Economic Times

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Sep 2009, Safety Sep 2009