MANGALORE: An Indian Navy helicopter caught fire at the old terminal building of Bajpe airport here on Monday.
Personnel on board Indian Navy Helicopter bearing call sign/registration IN556 had a close shave when the helicopter in which they arrived from Kochi at the apron of the old terminal building. Rescue and fire fighting personnel of Airports Authority of India alerted by Air Traffic Control (ATC) immediately rushed to the site and put off the fire using foam compound.
The Sea King MK-42 helicopter, with 13 personnel on board, that was on its way from Indian Navy's aviation base Garuda at Kochi and on its way to Mumbai landed at the runway of old terminal at 10.45 am and taxied to the apron. When the helicopter was on parking stand 1, CISF personnel on duty noticed smoke near the rotors that had stopped at 10.56 am and reported it to the ATC. The rescue and fire fighting personnel put out the fire at 11 am.
M R Vasudeva, airport director, Mangalore Airport told TOI that the helicopter's rotors were switched off when the smoke was seen and the rescue and fire fighting personnel used less than 50-litres of foam compound to douse the fire. Defence helicopters landing at old airport for refueling while overflying Mangalore under the visual flight rules is routine, he said, adding they normally carry just 30 minutes of extra fuel on such sorties.
The flying time from Kochi to Mumbai is around 260 minutes and helicopters stopover for refueling here. Indian Navy sent a technical repair crew on its Dornier aircraft later in the day to carry out repairs and to transport the aircrew on board the damaged Seaking back, he said, adding that the Indian Coast Guard station here took care of needs of the aircrew in the interim. The Sea King will return once it is technically cleared by the Navy, he noted.
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