New Delhi: The nearly 40-year-old Beechcraft C90A aircraft that crashed in Jharkhand on Monday, killing seven people, did not have cockpit voice or flight data recorders, according to the aviation regulator DGCA.
The mandatory requirement for an aircraft to have cockpit voice and flight data recorders was not in place when the ill-fated aircraft was issued an airworthiness certificate back in 1987.
On February 23, Redbird Airways Pvt Ltd’s Beechcraft C90A aircraft VT-AJV, operating as an air ambulance from Ranchi to Delhi, crashed soon after takeoff. Five people and two crew members onboard died in the accident that happened in the forested area near Simaria in Jharkhand’s Chatra district.
A senior DGCA official said the twin-turboprop plane was manufactured in 1987, and its airworthiness review certificate was valid till January 20, 2027.
In what could pose hurdles for investigators in probing the factors that could have led to the crash, the aircraft did not have a black box.
Black box, which refers to the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and Flight Data Recorder (FDR), records crucial data about an aircraft.
Under the norms, aircraft that have a take-off weight of less than 5,700 kilograms are required to mandatorily have CVRs only if they had received an airworthiness certificate on or after January 1, 2016.
Similarly, the installation of FDR is mandatory only for aircraft having less than 5,700 kg take-off weight, that got their airworthiness certificate on or after January 1, 1987. The official said there was no mandatory regulatory requirement for the installation of a CVR or an FDR on the VT-AJV aircraft at the time of its original certification.
The first Certificate of Airworthiness (C of A) for the ill-fated aircraft was issued in 1987. The aircraft’s maximum take-off weight was 4,583 kg. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is probing the crash.
In less than a month, accidents involving two aircraft operated by NSOPs have claimed the lives of 12 people. Apart from the Jharkhand plane accident that killed 7 people, the crash of the Learjet 45 aircraft (VT-SSK), owned by VSR Ventures, at Baramati (Maharashtra), killed 5 people, including Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, on January 28.
Asserting that safety lapses cannot be simply blamed on pilots, aviation watchdog DGCA on Tuesday announced a raft of strict measures for non-scheduled operators, including intensive audits and a safety ranking mechanism, amid safety concerns raised in the wake of recent aircraft accidents.
