Political Diary

Police found the cockpit voice recorder, popularly known as Black Box, last evening.

The Black Box will be handed over to the five-member inquiry committee, appointed by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The DGCA team is likely to visit the crash site today and has been asked to submit the report within two months.

Police at Athmakur had registered a case of the crash following the death of Reddy, his Special Secretary P Subramanyam, Chief Security Officer A S C Wesley and both the pilots, Group Captain S K Bhatia and Capt M S Reddy under section 174 of the IPC.

The ill-fated helicopter had taken off from Begumpet airport at 0835 hrs on September 2, carrying the Chief Minister and four others for the first leg of ’Rachachabanda’ tour for a direct conversation with the villagers in Chittoor district and lost radio contact at 0902 hrs on the same day. The crash was located the next morning.

According to sources, the chopper was cleared to fly at 5,000 feet, but had been flying at 3,000 feet and served about 18 km away from its flight path before it crashed due to adverse weather condition into the hillock in the midst of the dense Nallamala forest.

The bodies of the Chief Minister and four others were retrieved when commandos were air dropped on the inaccessible crash site after a night-long operation, the biggest search undertaken jointly by the State and the Central Governments.