CBI submits report on Andhra CM Rajashekhar Reddy's copter crash

New Delhi, May 14: More than eight months after the fatal copter crash that killed Y S Rajashekar Reddy, and four others, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today submitted its report on the likely causes of the death of the then Andhra Chief Minister.The report was submitted to the Government of Andhra Pradesh and District Magistrate Kurnool today, said the CBI here adding that the crash which took place on September 2 last year at around 0923 hrs also killed the CM's Principal Secretary P Subramanyam, his Chief Security Officer A S C Wesley, along with pilot Group Captain S K Bhatia and co-pilot Captain M S Reddy.''The CM was on his way to attend an official function 'Rachabanda' (Village corner) in Chittoor District.'' The State-owned Bell-430 VT APG helicopter left the Begumpet Airport at 0838 hrs but disappeared from the Air Traffic Control (ATC) screen at Shamshabad at 0923 hrs, after travelling about 94.1 nautical miles from Hyderabad's Begumpet Airport. The wreckage of the helicopter, along with the bodies of all the five deceased, was later recovered from a hillock 'Chirumanu Chiruthagundam Thippa' in Nallamalla Reserve Forest in Kurnool District (AP).A case in this regard was registered at Atmakur Police Station under section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code on September 3, 2009, and a Preliminary Enquiry registered at CBI, Hyderabad, on September 11 following a request by the state government. The ''detailed and exhaustive enquiry'' carries accounts of several witnesses, and the assistance of experts from the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Bangalore, Institute of Aerospace Medicine(IAM), Bangalore, Central Forensic Laboratories, Hyderabad, New Delhi and Chandigarh, Rotary Wing Society of India, Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, National Remote Sensing Center, Hyderabad, Zen Technologies Ltd, Hyderabad among others.
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