AFVOA Newletter August 2020

Section 5 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 02 / 2020 Page 137 of 237 20 My Clue that Solved a Mystery Wg Cdr P Arulanandam Genre: Investigation was posted at HQ Western Air Command on staff in the Maintenance Branch from 1977 to 1980. My duties involved among other maintenance control activities, analysis of defect investigation reports, aircraft accident/incident reports and proceedings of court of inquiry on technical matters. On 19 November 1978 an AN-12 aircraft crashed during landing at Leh airfield killing 77 personnel of the Army and Air Force. A high level Court of Inquiry presided by Air Vice Marshal Kingsley was ordered to investigate into this catastrophic accident. Other members included Air Commodore Sandhanwalia and Wg Cdr Gururani as technical experts and Gp Capt NS Arora as pilot member. The DGCA was represented by two civilian flight safety officers. The Court recorded evidence at the accident site in Leh and the AN12 Squadrons based at Chandigarh. However, the Court could not conclusively identify the cause of the accident despite their detailed study of the wreckage at Leh and prolonged deliberations at Chandigarh which housed both the Squadron and the BRD responsible to overhaul the AN12. Hence the cause of accident remained unresolved. A copy of the proceedings of the Court of Inquiry landed up on my table at WAC since I was dealing with AN12 aircraft and also accident/incident Reports. The Court reported that while the aircraft was in the approach to land it suddenly rolled to the right and the right wingtip hit the ground first before the aircraft crashed. From the evidence on record and my in-depth technical knowledge about AN-12 aircraft systems and flying experience, I could presume that asymmetric flap might be one of the likely causes of the accident. I discussed the matter with the SMSO Air Cmde Baindur who was the head of the Maintenance Branch. After hearing my detailed explanation about the flap system in the AN-12 aircraft, he accepted my point of view. He immediately called Air Cmde Sandhanwalia (the senior technical member of the Court) to hear my explanation in detail the possible failure of the flap system. However, he did not agree with my point of view. I told him that I could practically demonstrate the failure on ground on one of the AN12 aircraft in the Squadron. The matter was put up to the Air Officer Commanding in Chief of WAC, Air Marshal Dilbagh Singh (later to become the CAS). An Otter aircraft was charted to take the Court of Inquiry Team and me to Chandigarh for the demonstration. A I