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New Delhi, Oct 2: A pilot of the Border Security Force’s Air Wing, in his letter to top brass, alleged that standard operating procedures of flying and safety are not being followed. The BSF pilot, Wing Commander Yogesh Kumar Daksh, said VIPs, MPs including Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, have been flying in unsafe conditions, with uncategorised pilots flying their aircraft. The letter dated August 15 is addressed to the BSF’s IG (Air).
In his letter, Yogesh Kumar pointed out that the BSF Air Wing doesn’t conduct pre-flight medical check-ups of pilots and not a single flight safety meeting has been held since June 2016. “In the last few months, it has been observed that there has been gross dilution in adherence to these orders and SOP. This trend may lead to serious accident/incident, jeopardising the life and safety of the aircrew and passengers involved in flying,” Kumar said in the letter.
The BSF pilot further claimed that the BSF Air Wing does not have a single Infra Red (IR) Flare to thwart being targeted by missiles. “The BSF Air Wing is not even holding a single IR flare on its inventory and the helicopters are frequently tasked to fly without IR flares fitted, even at times with VIPs on board,” he wrote. IR flares are used to divert an incoming missile. The letter also points out there is no operations base at Safdarjung airport in Delhi.
Speaking to Indian Expres, another BSF pilot said precautionary measures should be taken, but maintained that there was no such threat to MPs or Home Minister Rajnath Singh. “But yes, it’s a precautionary measure which would not be bad to carry while flying in Kashmir. But all this costs a lot of money and resources are limited. We have to manage in the funds we have,” he told the newspaper.
One of the concerns that Yogesh Kumar raised was that ‘uncategorised pilots’ were tasked to fly VIP choppers. The letter mentioned that one of the pilots who was flying MoS Home Kiren Rijiju on July 4, when he had a narrow escape when his Mi-17 helicopter made an emergency landing in Arunachal Pradesh, was an uncategorised (or trainee) pilot. On October 2, 2016, the Director General of the Bangladesh Rifles was flown in a chopper where both the pilots were uncategorised, says the letter.
However, a senior BSF officer said the uncategorised pilot who flew Rijiju had five years of experience in flying and so could not be called “unsafe”. “But yes, we do have a problem of crew. We don’t have enough people. And so we have to make do with uncategorised pilots,” he admitted.
Yogesh Kumar said aircrafts are lacking in maintenance as all supervisors sit in Delhi. A senior Air Wing officer said the infrastructure at Ranchi and Guwahati are not fully developed and so large-scale servicing was not being done at these bases, reported the newspaper.
In response to the concerns raised by Yogesh Kumar, the BSF AIR Wing said, “BSF has very limited resources in terms of Pilots and Technicians, thus, most of the aircrew and ground crew is on deputation/ absorption from IAF and are highly experienced professionals. Thus safety of Ops including VIP is always ensured and it is for this reason that the Mi-17 fleet has had NIL accident, incident flying since it started ops in 2003.”
“The Fixed Wing and Rotatory wings are respectively headed by DIG-level officers (who are ex-Air Force pilots). The overall command is with Air Vice Marshal-rank officer from IAF. The issues as brought out have been adequately been taken note of. Any further observations of Directorate of Air Staff Inspection (DASI) would be duly addressed in order to ensure safe and effective continuation of operations,” it added further.
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