Poor air quality curtails movement of choppers in city

The movement of helicopters in the city has been restricted in view of the poor air quality index (AQI) for the last few days.

State aviation director Sanjay Karve said, “It was planned to shower petals on Chaityabhoomi on Tuesday on account of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s death anniversary. It was postponed to late afternoon but we could not do it because the visibility was bad. AQI is going from bad to worse.”

While J D Radhakrishna, regional executive director of Airport Authority of India, has advised pilots to exercise caution, sources at Juhu airport said takeoffs to offshore platforms in mornings have become difficult.

Uday Gelli, president of Rotary Wing Society of India’s western region, said the air quality is affecting the visibility of pilots. “This is felt more in onshore flights as compared to the offshore ones. In a way, this bad visibility affects helicopter operations.’’

Aman Johri of Aman Aviation said they are facing losses because they can now fly only for two hours instead of five-six hours. “We cannot take off in the morning due to the haze. It is very troublesome for pilots who use visual flight rules against those who use instrument flight rules. In Mumbai, we need visibility of 3,000 metres.’’

A pilot said he had to pick up officials from Mahalakshmi helipad two weeks ago and was all set to fly in the morning. But he had to cancel the flight as the visibility was poor. “There is a lot of dust cloud and pollution also due to the Coastal road work,’’ an official at Juhu airport said.

Mihir Bhagvati, president of Bombay Flying Club that also operates from Juhu airport, said, “In the last few days, the visibility in Mumbai and surrounding areas has dropped to 1.5 km and 1.7 km respectively, which is very low. There is a solid layer of haze which extends up to 6,500-7,000 feet and the AQI beyond that is very clean. When we land, there is dust on our aircraft.’’

A naval pilot who flies from INS Shikra in Colaba, however, said they don’t face any trouble as the air is cleaner in the sea. Shikra is a home to nearly 20 helicopters while Juhu has nearly 40 choppers.