BSF plane crash: Pilot may be held responsible in internal inquiry

Favourite with the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju and BSF Director General DK Pathak, the Captain of ill-fated Super King plane, crashed on December 22, could possibly be held responsible in the internal inquiry of the force for the unfortunate accident.

Referring to the aviation ethics, a senior BSF official told Millennium Post that if the Captain of a aircraft decides that he won’t fly due to any technical glitch, nobody can force him to take off. “It is in whole Aviation Industry’s ethics that gives a Captain the power to take a decision whether to fly or not depending upon the condition of the aircraft,” said the official. Soon after the tragic accident, the BSF had ordered an internal inquiry into the mishap to find out the factors that might have led to the accident.

Speaking on the maintenance and the condition of the aircraft, the senior official said the Super King Air B-200 was in proper condition and it was very often being used for VVIPs movements. 

“The aircraft was Rijiju’s favourite one and he had traveled in it many times. However, there are several important internal and external factors and any one of them might have caused this accident,” said the official.  

Responding on the allegations that BSF used ‘old aircraft’ and puting the lives of troops at risk, the official emphatically dismissed the charges. He said the aircraft and the Captain were favorite with Rijiju and day before the incident it ferried officials for the recently concluded conference of DGs in Rann of Kutch.

The BSF air wing currently has 18 choppers. These include five MI 17 VI, six MI17 1V, six ALH (Dhruv) and one Cheetah helicopter. The force had already floated the global tenders for its six MI17 1V choppers which were commissioned in 2003 to get them overhauled. “The force has already grounded the six MI17 1V choppers after completing first 10 years of operation and we are in the process of sending them back to Russia to get them overhauled,” said the official.  

On December 22, the 11-seater Super King Air B-200 carrying 10 BSF officers to Ranchi crashed near Dwarka in Delhi at 9.40 am and burst into flames just outside IGI airport shortly after take-off, killing everyone on board. Technical snag in the plane prompted the pilot to turn back towards the airport after taking off, but the plane hit a tree and crashed.