Crash 18 mins after signal loss

Hyderabad

Sept. 7: The pilots of the chopper carrying the former Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, may have tried in vain to contact Chennai ATC desperately before the mishap.
Forensic experts said the chopper watch found at the crash site had stopped at 9.30 am indicating that the mishap took place at that time. However the last contact with the Shamshabad ATC was at 9.12 am.
“They contacted Chennai ATC at 9.02 am and said they wanted to switch over from Shamshabad,” said the AAI director, Mr R.K. Singla. “The Chennai ATC asked the pilots to come back at 9.30 am. Meanwhile they contacted Shamshabad ATC at 9.12 am and said they wanted to switch over.”
However, the Chennai ATC did not get any communication from the pilots at 9.30 am since the mishap occurred around that time.
“The bodies could have been blown up due to the impact of chopper which may have hit the hill at high speed,” said Mr Singla.
Meanwhile, officials of AP Aviation Corporation said that the chopper maintenance engineer had given certificate stating that Emergency Locator Transmitter was working well.
An official of AP Aviation Corporation said that three police constables guarded the chopper in the State government hangar in Begumpet Airport round the clock. “But we don’t know whether the police have really checked the VIP chopper before it took off,” he said.
However, the official dismissed the possibility of fuel adulteration or stones being put in the tank. “If that had happened, the chopper wouldn’t have travelled till Nallamala,” he said.