An Ecuadorian Air Force's Indian built HAL Dhruv helicopter assigned for presidential transport crashed on Friday, killing 3 crews a...
An Ecuadorian Air Force's Indian built HAL Dhruv helicopter assigned for presidential transport crashed on Friday, killing 3 crews and seriously injuring another, in the southern Ecuador, Chimborazo region. The three military personels died are presidential pilot Captain Hector Caicedo Londoño, Lieutenant Sergeant Jorge Flores and Cristian Suarez Benavides Unda.
The other pilot Captain Fabian Narvaez Pazos survived the crash with serious injuries. This is the second crash of Ecuadorian Dhruv, the first ocurred in Oct 2009, during a military flypast, with the both pilots walking away from crashed helicopter. The crash was later attributed to pilot error.
HAL supplied the Ecuador with 7 Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH) under a $ 51 million contract signed in 2007. The export of Dhruv to Ecuador was seen as a major breakthrough for India in the area of defence export as the deal was clinched after fierce bidding that also involved Israeli firm Elbit, Eurocopter and Russia's Kazan. Ecuador has initiated investigation to determine the causes of crash.
More than 100s of ALH Dhruvs are operated by Indian Air Force, Indian Army, Indian Navy, Coast Guard, Border Security Force and state governments since 2002.
