Forced entry into clouds caused the Sept 23 chopper crash’.

Kathmandu, December 4:

The commission formed to probe the Shree Airlines chopper crash of September 23 at Ghunsa in Taplejung, in its report, said the helicopter had entered the clouds intentionally (without analysing the weather condition) in the unfamiliar terrain, thus violating the Flight Operations Requirement (FOR).

The crash had claimed 24 lives, including Gopal Rai, minister of state for forest and soil conservation. Submitting the report to the government today, the commission headed by appellate court judge Keshari Raj Pandit found that since the 9N-AHJ (MI-17) helicopter was not certified for Instrumental Flight Rule (IFR), “entering into cloud in such a terrain was not a good judgment.”

The commission, however, found no “evidence of unlawful interference.”

The report said that the weather condition of Ghunsa, where the chopper took-off was cloudy and the hills covered up with frequent light rain. One of the reasons for the accident, according to the report, was that since it was the first flight of Captain Klim Kim, the pilot, he was not familiar with the terrain and its surroundings.”

“The helicopter entered into the clouds while clearing Ghunsa valley and then it climbed up to 3885 metres with air speed of 62 km per hour in 2 minutes 30 seconds,” the report said.

The pilot realised that the chopper was only 60 metres above the ground, which indicated that the peak was somewhere around them and the pilot’s effort to avert the untoward could not succeed and in the next 13 seconds the helicopter descended to 3990 metres and crashed in the steep rugged mountain terrain.

The report said the pre-flight briefing and proper crew coordination among the crew members were not found to be followed. “The power plant and copter systems were functioning normally till the impact,” it said.