CID team to grill airport, ATC men

Hyderabad

Sept. 6: CID officials probing the crash of the helicopter carrying then chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy will record statements of the Shamshabad and Chennai Air Traffic Control officials as well as the security staff at Begumpet Airport where the copter was kept for more than two months.
The CID will be taking the help of Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which is conducting a parallel probe, by collecting documents and record books related to the condition of the copter and the persons linked to its maintenance and air traffic control.
The investigation will be focused on the efforts, if any, made by ATC officials to track the helicopter after it went missing on September 2 as well as the allegations that the ATC did not inform the government when they could not establish contact with the copter.
The officials will also talk to officials in the airport meteorological department to find out whether they had issued weather warnings to the pilot. They will also interview the agencies involved in refuelling the copter.
The CID additional DG, Mr A. Sivanarayana, said, “The investigation is in the preliminary stage. All the persons linked to the copter will be examined and statements recorded.”
CID will also be looking into whether the set of drills were followed before the Chief Minister took the copter. All security lapses will be looked into.
Meanwhile the autopsy report of the crash victims said they had died due to multiple injuries.
Forensic experts on Sunday collected decomposed body pieces of the victims from the Pavuralatippa hillock near Atmakur in the Nallamala forest where the copter crashed.
Forensic doctors said they did not take any samples from the bodies for DNA fingerprinting.
“There was no need for DNA fingerprinting as the bodies are identified with facial features,” said Dr M.S.R.K. Prasad, who led the autopsy team. Even viscera of the pilots were not collected, he added.
The officials collected soil and other debris to conduct chemical, physical and ballistic analysis. A team, led by Mr Venkateshwarlu, had visited the spot on Sunday.
The officials had sent a bomb disposal squad on Saturday to check the site. The bomb squad had confirmed that helicopter had not been struck down by explosives.