CHEETAHS CAN'T FLY

To keep pilots safe and to better service high-altitude regions, India’s obsolete Cheetah helicopters must go

- PRADIP R. SAGAR

Every time her husband—a Cheetah helicopter pilot of the Indian Army’s aviation wing—goes flying, even for a routine sortie, Meenal Bhonsle makes it a point to see him off. “It could be our last meeting, we never know,” she says. “It is a traumatising day for me when he is flying.”

Over the years, the Cheetahs, which dominate the Indian military’s fleet of light utility helicopters (LUHs), have become a spot of bother. Last September, a Cheetah on a routine sortie crashed at Patnitop in Jammu and Kashmir, killing two Army officers. In February 2020, one crash-landed in Jammu’s Reasi area; there were no casualties. In 2019, another one crashed, killing two pilots—one from the Indian Army and the other from the Royal Bhutan Army—while flying over Sikkim, on the border with China.

Quite often, there are no roads to strategic heights like Siachen, making the Cheetah a lifeline for India’s high-altitude operations. The primary workhorse for the Indian military has been serving high-altitude areas in observation, surveillance, logistics and rescue roles.

But the fleet has been plagued by frequent crashes and serviceability issues. The Army Aviation Corps and the Air Force operate close to 200 Cheetah helicopters. There have been more than 30 crashes in the last few years and close to 40 personnel, including pilots, have died; several others have been wounded. Almost 80 per cent of these helicopters have outlived their lifespan of 30 years; the rest will cross the 50-year mark in early 2022. In a 2015 internal communication, the Army headquarters had said that Cheetah helicopters have virtually become “death traps”.