YSR crash report says chopper was fit

• The team found records to prove that five personnel of the City Armed Reserve Police guard the helicopters meant for CM’s use 24 hours,seven days a week.

• On September 1,Pilot Group Captain S K Bhatia carried out proficiency check of co-pilot Captain M S Reddy on Bell-430 helicopter. The duration of the flight was 1.15 hours and after flight the pilot had reported that the chopper was fit in all aspects.

• At 5 am on September 2,the maintenance staff arrived at the hangar and carried out pre-flight inspection as per the approved scheduled of DGCA by Aircraft Maintenance Engineer M Lakshman Rao.

• At 6:15 am,a doctor completed the pre-flight medical examination of Pilot Group Captain S K Bhatia and Co-pilot M S Reddy. Pilot Bhatia,who was designated as Pilot in Command had accepted the helicopter from Aircrat Maintenance Engineer. A test flight was undertaken of 10 minutes duration after which both pilots report that all systems were working well.

• At 6:30 am,the helicopter was positioned at Begumpet Airport VVIP point for the inspection of Bomb Detection and Disposable Team of Intelligence Security Wing (Anti-Sabotage). The team inspected the helicopter,including the cabin,baggage,surroundings and path up to the VVIP lounge. The scheduled departure was 7:30 am.

• The Pilot In Command S K Bhatia obtained prior clearance from the ATC as per procedure of DGCA by applying in prescribed form duly indicating the origin,destination (coordinates) altitude at which they intend to fly and the flight path. Both pilots also personally attended to take a briefing from Meteorology Department located on the first floor of Begumpet Airport and obtained a copy of data the same in writing.

• At 8:35,the helicopter with two pilots took off with three passengers — Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy,P Subramanium and A C S Wesley.

• Once the chopper took off from Begumpet Airport,up to 50 nautical miles the Hyderabad Radar based at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad monitored the chopper. Thereafter,it was transferred to Chennai HF Radio monitored by the Regional Centre at Chennai. The first contact with Chennai was made by the chopper at 9:12 am. The chopper was flying at 5,500 feet and headed south toward Chittoor. The Chennai HF had asked the chopper to contact at 9:30 am again. Thereafter,all contact was lost and the chopper disappeared from radar.

• The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) has not been decoded till now as it has been partly damaged. The Indian representatives of the helicopter manufacturers were summoned and shown the CVR for decoding. The representatives have summoned another expert group to help in decoding the CVR. In case it turns out to be difficult to decode,the DGCA would send the CVR to the USA to Bell company for decoding.

KVP meets Sonia

NEW DELHI: KVP Ramachandra Rao,a key figure in the ongoing succession battle in Andhra Pradesh following the demise of Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy,on Tuesday called on Congress president Sonia Gandhi to apprise her of the political developments in the state.

Emerging from 10,Janpath after a one-and-half-hour long meeting,Rao said the Congress chief had promised that she would talk to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and AICC in-charge of state Veerappa Moily before taking any decision. Rao had been summoned by

Sonia following days of aggressive campaigning by YSR loyalists,reportedly at his behest,to install Jaganmohan as Chief Minister. ENS