The Bell 212 helicopter crashed around 8.15am but it was not until one-and-a-half hours later that the aviation authorities concerned sensed something amiss. They began a search only after they realized that the aircraft had not landed at its destination at the scheduled time.
An order issued by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) three years ago seems to have much to do with the delay. Because of the circular, helicopters taking off from Juhu airport are not supposed to appear on the busy secondary radar of the Mumbai airport as the authorities do not want the already-crowded screen to be cluttered further. As the chopper did not send out any signal about its location, none of the officials realized on Sunday morning that a chopper had gone down till the time.
The order issued by AAI chairman V P Agarwal on March 15, 2010, instructed helicopter pilots not to operate their aircraft transponders when the planes were within 10 nautical mile or 18-km radius of the Mumbai airport. A transponder is an instrument that sends information about its location, altitude, range etc to a secondary surveillance radar. Going by the circular, the transponder of the Bell 212 was also switched off, as a result of which its location never appeared on Mumbai airport's secondary radar and when it crashed its disappearance was not registered.
30/09/13 Manju v/Times of India
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An order issued by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) three years ago seems to have much to do with the delay. Because of the circular, helicopters taking off from Juhu airport are not supposed to appear on the busy secondary radar of the Mumbai airport as the authorities do not want the already-crowded screen to be cluttered further. As the chopper did not send out any signal about its location, none of the officials realized on Sunday morning that a chopper had gone down till the time.
The order issued by AAI chairman V P Agarwal on March 15, 2010, instructed helicopter pilots not to operate their aircraft transponders when the planes were within 10 nautical mile or 18-km radius of the Mumbai airport. A transponder is an instrument that sends information about its location, altitude, range etc to a secondary surveillance radar. Going by the circular, the transponder of the Bell 212 was also switched off, as a result of which its location never appeared on Mumbai airport's secondary radar and when it crashed its disappearance was not registered.
30/09/13 Manju v/Times of India
