YSR chopper crash blamed on pilots
By IANSWednesday, January 20, 2010
NEW DELHI - A final probe into the helicopter crash last year that killed Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy has blamed the pilots for the disaster.
Stating the probable cause of the Sep 2, 2009 accident, the civil aviation ministry said that the accident occurred due to loss of control, leading to uncontrolled descent in hostile terrain.
The bodies of YSR, as the chief minister was popularly known, and four others including the pilots were found the next day in the hills of Kurnool.
The chopper had taken off from the old airport at Begumpet in Hyderabad for Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh.
The crew, the investigation says, noticed a snag but they were searching for the check-list from the flight manual during the vital six minutes before the crash.
“This was one of the factors that contributed to the crash. This distracted their attention from the prevailing poor visibility weather conditions, leading into the loss of situational awareness,” the report said.
There were multiple agencies involved in the probe including the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and a four-member team headed by R.K. Tyagi, chairman and managing director of Pawan Hans.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had launched a probe into the crash and to ascertain it was a case of a sabotage.
