A week after the helicopter of former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy crashed, the police finally traced the key alarm instrument — Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) — from the debris near the site, but it was in a damaged condition.
Kurnool Superintendent of Police Ch. Srikant told The Hindu that the damage to the ELT was confirmed by a technician of the A.P. Aviation Corporation Limited.
However, it would be shown to the team from the office of the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) that arrived in Kurnool on Wednesday. The ELT of the helicopter did not emit any signals after the crash to assist the search and rescue operations.
Notwithstanding the damage, a senior police officer here said the ELT would be despatched to the DGCA headquarters in New Delhi. The police had handed over to DGCA the cockpit voice recorder, flight operation documents, report of the bomb disposal squad, CDs containing the video and photos of site and police panchanama.
He said that the Crime Investigation Department (CID) was veering round to the conclusion that there was no sabotage in the crash by a process of eliminating probabilities. However, the weather report had not been obtained yet and a thorough understanding of the professional skills of pilots S.K. Bhatia and M.S. Reddy still held the key to further investigation. The CID believes that it was either bad weather or pilots’ error or a combination of both that led to the tragedy.
Copter airworthy
A significant outcome of investigation by CID so far was that there was nothing wrong with the helicopter before it took off from the Begumpet airport. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will formally take over investigation of the case from the CID on Thursday.
Kurnool Superintendent of Police Ch. Srikant told The Hindu that the damage to the ELT was confirmed by a technician of the A.P. Aviation Corporation Limited.
However, it would be shown to the team from the office of the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) that arrived in Kurnool on Wednesday. The ELT of the helicopter did not emit any signals after the crash to assist the search and rescue operations.
Notwithstanding the damage, a senior police officer here said the ELT would be despatched to the DGCA headquarters in New Delhi. The police had handed over to DGCA the cockpit voice recorder, flight operation documents, report of the bomb disposal squad, CDs containing the video and photos of site and police panchanama.
He said that the Crime Investigation Department (CID) was veering round to the conclusion that there was no sabotage in the crash by a process of eliminating probabilities. However, the weather report had not been obtained yet and a thorough understanding of the professional skills of pilots S.K. Bhatia and M.S. Reddy still held the key to further investigation. The CID believes that it was either bad weather or pilots’ error or a combination of both that led to the tragedy.
Copter airworthy
A significant outcome of investigation by CID so far was that there was nothing wrong with the helicopter before it took off from the Begumpet airport. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will formally take over investigation of the case from the CID on Thursday.
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