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Haputale Y-12 crash: Safety features questioned since 2015
The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) has been using its Chinese-built Harbin Y-12s–one of which crashed in Haputale on Friday, killing all on board–and Xian MA60 aircraft for civilian passenger transport without authorisation from the aviation regulator.
The military has said a technical fault caused the Y-12 to crash. While only investigators can determine whether issues of airworthiness had anything to do with the accident, questions have dogged SLAF for years over its complete disregard for safety regulations that elsewhere in the world are deemed non-negotiable. The Sunday Times has highlighted this since 2015.
The SLAF has two Harbin Y-12s. They are still advertised for charters on the website of Helitours, SLAF’s commercial passenger service which transports civilian passengers despite strictures from the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL). Helitours also offers scheduled flights to Palaly, Trincomalee and Batticaloa.
A telephone call to its booking office on Friday confirmed that passengers could still buy tickets for scheduled flights and reserve planes for charters, and that the Harbin Y-12 was also available. But neither the SLAF’s MA60s nor its Harbin Y-12s possess Certificates of Airworthiness (COA) issued by the CAASL. And Helitours no longer has an Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC).
The COA is issued for an aircraft and is mandatory if it is to be used in commercial operations. The AOC allows an aircraft operator to use planes for commercial purposes.
The SLAF’s civilian flights are run under military call signs. The aircraft are not insured. Passengers are required to sign an indemnity form absolving the operator of any responsibility in the event of an accident. “No insurance of baggage claim will be entertained for any unforeseen circumstances,” Helitours says.
We first reported this in June 2015 when it was found that Helitours was handing out indemnity forms to paying customers because they were being flown on the Harbin Y-12 which was not cleared for commercial use.
Clive O’Connell, one of the world’s leading insurance and re-insurance legal professionals, said at the time that, “the idea of the passengers indemnifying the air carrier is extraordinary. I have never heard of that before.”
Insurance Ombudsman, the late Wickrema Weerasooria, said the indemnity form handed out by Helitours would be thrown out by any court of law. “The company cannot say it bears no liability whatsoever to its passengers,” he said. “The usual practice is for carriers to limit their liabilities to certain sums. These are listed on the passenger tickets.”
The SLAF uses its aircraft interchangeably for military and civilian operations–another reason why Helitours cannot hold an AOC. The Civil Aviation Act of 2010 categorically states that every possessor of an AOC or a foreign AOC operating within Sri Lanka “shall keep in force at all times a liability insurance adequately covering his liability for death or bodily injury to passengers which may be caused by an accident and for the loss of or damage to baggage, cargo or mail, due to any event during the period of carriage and for the delay in the carriage of passengers, baggage, cargo or liability insurance.”
The Act also defines “military aircraft” as “an aircraft used or operated for or on behalf of a State for purposes other than the carriage of passengers or cargo for hire or reward”.
The aircraft the SLAF uses for civilian transport are not examined by the regulator because the operation sits in a grey area between military and commercial. For some years, SLAF actively resisted attempts by inspectors to visit its aerodromes–although it did, on occasion, cooperate. No other operator in this country has such rights and privileges.
The CAASL no longer accepts a civilian air transport company called Helitours. Its planes have all been taken off the civilian aircraft register. There are no independent safety audits and the regulator has no information on modifications or from where, for instance, spare parts are procured.
The regulator does not even have details of the civilian passenger flights (including charters on the Harbin Y-12) that the SLAF carries out. An email to Air Force Spokesman Capt Gihan Seneviratne yesterday inquiring when the Y-12s were last deployed on commercial operations went unanswered.
“As SLAF is in charge of security surveillance of Sri Lanka’s airspace, all civil operators shall get air defence approval from SLAF and this requirement is not applicable to SLAF,” Civil Aviation Director General H M C Nimalsiri, previously explained. “Due to this independence that SLAF is having, the CAASL does not know as to what time, what aircraft or what aerodrome it uses for operation of flights.”
The Harbin Y-12s were never on the civilian aircraft register, although the MA60s once were. “The Y-12s came here without any of the necessary documents in hand,” Mr. Nimalsiri said. “When they come without documents we cannot give them validity because we don’t know about the aircraft.”
These may be acceptable to the military, but not in the case of civilian operations. In 2018, after months of debate with the regulator, the SLAF even suspended civilian flights. A spokesman said it will work with the CAASL “to improve civilian passenger transport safety and standards”. But the regulator found no evidence of that happening.
The SLAF’s intractability arises, in part, from a need to keep its pilots in the air so their licences don’t expire. But it has led the CAASL to wash its hands of the operation.
The regulator also faced political pressure to back off. When, in 2018, the CAASL wanted to take the Helitours dilemma up to the Attorney General, the Minister in charge advised against it. The then President Maithripala Sirisena faulted the CAASL for blocking the SLAF’s commercial operation.
There are other issues with Helitours. The company was registered as a private entity but sustained with taxpayer funds with public officials on its Board of Directors. It is neither a State-owned enterprise nor a private entity. It has never been audited by the National Audit Office or, for that matter, by any entity.
The CAASL cannot enforce civil rules on the Air Force which falls under the Sri Lanka Air Force Act, despite Helitours being a limited liability company and carrying out activities that were within the purview of the Civil Aviation Act.
The Air Force has often said it was providing a service and does not make profits from the proceeds, all of which are credited to the State. But it has never held itself accountable for its many violations.
The Harbin Y-12 that crashed on Friday was carrying military personnel–but it might well have been ferrying civilians. Regardless of what investigators find, the SLAF has been carrying out commercial operations completely outside of an independent regulatory framework.
The only option available to the CAASL is to file action in court. That doesn’t seem likely. “That would set us on a collision course,” Mr Nimalsiri said. “And one Government Department doesn’t usually sue another Department.”
Going by indemnity forms the SLAF hands out, passengers also will not have that choice should the need ever arise.