Hyderabad: A team of Director General of
Civil Aviation (DGCA), probing the helicopter crash that
killed the then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara
Reddy, has gathered evidences from the crash site which would
be further examined, a top official said here on Friday.
"We have collected some evidences which will be further
examined and after this examination the cause of accident
would be established," R K Tyagi, who is heading a five-member
high-powered committee of DGCA, told media persons here.
Before leaving for Delhi, the DGCA team held detailed
discussions with the officials of Hyderabad Air Traffic
Control and Andhra Pradesh Aviation Corporation Ltd here.
The team also collected the weather report from ATC
officials and inquired whether the two pilots S K Bhatia and M
S Reddy, who were also killed in the crash, had undergone
health check-up prior to take off on September 2, sources
said.
The twin-engine Bell-430 helicopter, carrying Rajasekhara
Reddy, his Principal Secretary P Subrahmanyam and Chief
Security Officer ASC Wesley besides the pilots, had taken off
from old Begumpet Airport at 8.35 am on that day towards
Chittoor district.
But the chopper crashed in Nallamala forest about 70km
east of Kurnool. The wreckage of the helicopter was spotted by
IAF helicopters at around 8.30 am on September 3, nearly 24
hours after it lost contact with the Air Traffic Controller at
old Begumpet Airport here.
The helicopter had deviated 18 kms from its path, hit a
cliff of a hillock, crashed and exploded.
Tyagi, who is also Chairman and Managing Director of
Pawan Hans Corporation, took up on site investigations at
the crash site in the dense Nallamala forest range in Kurnool
district yesterday.
The expert team which videographed the enitre area and
collected crucial pieces of the helicopter wreckage is likely
to visit to Kurnool again after a week.
The team later held interaction with doctors and forensic
experts who conducted autopsy on the charred remains of YSR
and four others.
"We have made the site visit yesterday. We also discussed
with all the doctors who have conducted the post-mortem,"
Tyagi said but did not divulge details on the technical and
other aspects that led to the crash.
Bureau Report
