ALH Dhruv crash: HAL fights back against 'speculative, malicious' reports as fleet stays grounded

Amid reports that the entire fleet of around 330 Dhruv advanced light helicopters (ALH), grounded after the crash involving an ALH belonging to the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) in Porbandar of Gujarat in early January, will continue to remain out of action for another three months, aircraft manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has come out with a clarification.

HAL pointed out that ever since the crash, there have been “speculative and stories with malicious intentions on HAL" being written and published online, print, websites, blogs, social and digital media platforms.

According to the state-run company, such reports are written by “so-called Defence analysts, former pilots, officers of the Defence Forces and arm-chair critics” without offering HAL's perspective, and the arguments presented by these writers are one-sided and biased.

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HAL pointed out that there are inaccuracies in such reports and references to outdated issues that have long been resolved by the company by taking its customers into confidence. The company further revealed that HAL cannot respond to or comment on all such reports one-on-one due to the sensitive nature of Defence issues and products.

“HAL would like to reiterate that it is working with all its customers including the Indian Air Force and is confident of handling the critical issues that are innate to the Defence Aeronautics and complex flying platforms,” the company said in a statement and added that such reports can adversely impact the interest of HAL's stakeholders.

Defence