YSR copter pilot violated norms, yet was given extension

Hyderabad: The saga of the crash of the helicopter carrying Y S Rajasekhara Reddy is getting curiouser and curiouser with records accessed by TOI showing that the pilot, Group Captain S K Bhatia, had in the past contravened flight manuals and had been issued memos for "poor professional performance".
On January 16, 2009, a flight carrying the Dalai Lama and piloted by Bhatia developed a snag. But in contravention of the flight manual, the captain carried on.
On another occasion, with Rajasekhara Reddy on flight, "the actions of the pilot caused embarassment to the passengers and appeared to compromise VVIP safety and on a specific direction from the chief minister's office, a memo was issued to the captain seeking his explanation on his poor-professional experience", reads an official record of the AP Aviation Corporation, which operated the choppers for the Andhra Pradesh government for carrying VVIPs. "In the Air Force if he had contravened flight manual recommendations, he could have been chargesheeted," retired fighter pilot Wing Commander A K L Saxena told TOI.
Incidentally, these facts about the performance of the now deceased pilot were part of the letter written by the managing director of AP Aviation Corporation K V Brahmananda Reddy on May 27, 2009, seeking repatriation of the pilot back to the Air Force on completion of his extended tenure with the AP government. At a rapid speed traversing the normal official channels, the letter reached the chief minister's office within a few days but curiously enough, not agreeing with the recommendations, Rajasekhara Reddy instructed: "Write to GOI immediately for one-year extension." The chief minister signed the note on June 5, 2009. The IAF is not known to have extended his term, maintaining a silence instead. Earlier on December 30, 2008, Air Force officials had written that no extension for the pilot beyond June 4, 2009, was feasible and that he would have to be reverted on that date.
10/09/09 Kingshuk Nag/Times of India

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