Shortage of pilots, old helicopters… big challenges in Pawan Hans flight

New Delhi: India’s only government helicopter company Pawan Hans is currently facing challenges on many fronts. After the resignation of 13 aircraft engineers from the company due to cut in salary and allowances, the issue of shortage of pilots and old helicopters is also being raised. Sources say that due to shortage of pilots, three Russian (26-26 seater) and two American (five-seater) helicopters of Pawan Hans have not been able to fly for more than two years. Now even getting their spare parts is becoming a problem. The company has three American helicopters Bell-407, but due to shortage of pilots, all three helicopters cannot fly simultaneously. Whereas there is not a single pilot to fly the two American Bell-206 helicopters. Similarly, there are no pilots to take off three Russian Mi-172s.

Old helicopter near Pawan Hans
Company sources say Pawan Hans was built in 1985 primarily to serve the offshore operations of ONGC, India’s largest oil and natural gas company. But, Pawan Hans is not able to provide helicopters to ONGC itself. This is the situation even though ONGC has 49 percent stake in Pawan Hans. Sources say that due to the aging helicopters in Pawan Hans, ONGC is not being provided services. This is the reason why Pawan Hans could not get the contract of ONGC because he/she did not fit in the ‘ Vintage Clause’ of ONGC. Whereas ONGC requires 25 to 30 helicopters, to fulfill this requirement it is taking services from private companies.

Sources said that ONGC has set a condition that from safety point of view, it cannot take helicopters which are more than 10 years old for its services. Whereas, except for the four Sikorsky helicopters owned by Pawan Hans, all the helicopters in its fleet of more than 40 helicopters are more than 10 years old. Many of these helicopters are more than 35 years old. An attempt was made to talk to Sanjeev Razdan, CMD of Pawan Hans Company, regarding this entire matter, but no response could be received from his/her side.

If the company does not take care, the situation may worsen.Considering the financial condition of the company, more staff may resign in the coming time. So far 13 aircraft engineers have resigned, but all of them are on notice period. Therefore, there has been no adverse impact on operations so far. But, experts say that if the company does not think about this soon, more staff may start resigning. Especially if pilots and other crew also start resigning, the company may be in trouble.