Opinion More than 50 years ago, another crash, killing 5

The General Officer Commanding of 25 Infantry Division, responsible for the defence of the area during operations, Major General K N D Nanavati arrived in Poonch in an Alouette helicopter, which would eventually crash, killing all the officers on board. The other officers who were part of the entourage included Brigadier S R Oberoi, the Commander of the infantry brigade at Poonch, and Flight Lieutenant Lalwani.

The pilot of the ill-fated helicopter was Flight Lieutenant S S Sodhi, who had carried out a reconnaissance sortie on November 19 of the area where the Generals were headed for an inspection.

After the crash, a detailed statement was made by then defence Minister Y B Chavan in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

The details made available show that just before they were to leave for the inspection, Air Vice Marshal Pinto asked Flight Lieutenant Sodhi whether both the helicopter that he was piloting and another that was piloted by Lalwani could land at Jhalas. Sodhi said the helipad at the outpost was small, and could not accommodate both the helicopters.

Pinto discussed the matter with Lt Gen Daulat Singh, and it was decided that for the first part of the trip one helicopter would be used, and the second used after they arrived at Surankote, a military station nearby. Lalwani was asked to proceed directly to Surankote along with Air Commodore Murat Singh.

Lt Generals Daulat Singh and Bikram Singh, Maj Gen Nanavati, Air Vice Marshal Pinto and Brigadier Oberoi then got into Sodhi’s helicopter. After completing the first part of the visit, they got onto the chopper for the second outpost, which was around 15 nautical miles away. The route to be followed was along the Poonch river. After 3 minutes in the air, the chopper was to execute a right turn.

Here, it seems to have flown right into two parallel lines of telegraph cables suspended across the river, one at a height of 300 ft and the other at 100 ft. The helicopter struck the cables at 200-250 feet height and crashed into the river bed, approximately 400 yards away. All the occupants of the helicopter died in the crash.

Like the Coonoor incident that killed General Rawat and the others, it’s not clear how the Poonch accident happened. Sodhi had over 600 hours of helicopter flying experience and knew the J&K area well. Apparently, he did not notice the cables during the November 19 reconnaissance trip.

There were other discrepancies. In 1953, following the crash of a Devon aircraft carrying several Generals of the Army, who had a narrow escape, the Army Headquarters had issued detailed instructions restricting the number of senior officers who could travel in one aircraft. These orders were in place in 1963.

“Though these instructions did not refer to helicopters, the officers knew the spirit of these instructions. Two helicopters were available at Poonch but because of the restricted space where two helicopters could not land simultaneously, a decision was taken to travel in one helicopter even though it flouted the cautionary instructions,” Chavan said in his statement to Parliament.

A Court of Inquiry was ordered by the Chief of Air Staff. (Its findings are not in the public domain.)

Incidentally, the Poonch crash wasn’t the only one that day. At around the same time, a Dakota aircraft of the IAF crashed near Banihal Pass, killing all eight persons on board, including Flying Officer S S Sidhu who was training the pilots, Pilot Officer D Gupta, Pilot Officer V K Sahasrabudhe, Pilot Officer M V Singh and four civilian employees.

The wreckage of the aircraft was found on November 24 on the side of a steep hill.