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Janaki Murali

BANGALORE, March 5

THE crashing of the Bell 206 B3 helicopter, killing the pilot and all the passengers, including Speaker, Mr G. M. C. Balayogi, will be a setback for Deccan Aviation, considered one of the leading helicopter charter companies in the country.

With public focus on its fleet now and questions being asked about the safety of its chartered flights, it would be an uphill task for the company to weather the storm.

Col Arun Rao, General Manager, Marketing, said "It will be a temporary setback to the company and a bad patch for us. Though the loss of the helicopter can be recovered from our insurance companies, we can never recover the lives lost.''

Col Rao felt: "May be customers will be apprehensive of flying now, it is wrong to do guess work on the cause of the crash and speculate on the reasons. DGCA is doing the enquiry and we do not have any facts and figures about the crash.''

Col Rao said that maintenance checks were conducted on the helicopters, as stipulated by Bell, which was after every 300 hours of flying for the B3. "We have maintenance facilities at our Bangalore base and a few other bases and have qualified and trained engineers trained at Bell and Allisan facilities in the US,'' he added.

The 10-year-old Bell 206 B3 cost the company Rs 3 crore and was bought from a leasing company in the US three years ago. Bell 206 B3 is an earlier version of Bell's helicopters and can carry four passengers and is non-AC.

Deccan Aviation has six other Bell helicopters in its fleet, including Bell 206 L3, a six-seater with a powerful engine, a Bell 407, an advanced air-conditioned version of the L3 and a 13-seater Bell 212 too. In addition, there is a Eurocopter AS 355, along with two fixed wing aircraft, the Swiss manufactured Pilatus, PC 12 aircraft, which it added recently.

Charter costs for the ill-fated chopper was Rs 45,000 per hour, including waiting charges of Rs 5,000 per hour and night halt of Rs 15,000 per night. The L3 would cost Rs 65,000 per hour and the 407 Rs 62,500 per hour.

Deccan Aviation advertises itself as " your limousine in the sky'' and was launched in September 1997 by a group of retired offices from the Indian Army's aviation wing.

Although the company started with one helicopter, the company's fleet grew to seven helicopters, located in eight bases all over the country, making it a national charter company.

The company also undertakes offshore operations for foreign oil companies in collaboration with Bristow helicopters.

The company's helicopters are chartered to corporate and political leaders for election campaigns and also for heli-tourism.

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Chopper crash a setback, says Deccan Aviation

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