A four member team of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, led by R K Tyagi, will visit the site in dense Nallamalla forest on Thursday where the Bell-430 helicopter, carrying Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and four others, had crashed a week ago.
The team landed in Kurnool on Wednesday to start its probe into the crash, which had sent shock waves across the country and raised serious questions about the safety of the helicopters used by VIPs.
The team, which held a meeting with state government officials at Kurnool, will leave for the crash site in a helicopter. After landing at Atmakur, the nearest major town, the team will proceed in a tractor to the forest area. Later, it will have to trek for nearly three kms as the site is on top of the Paurvagutta hillock.
The crash site, spread over a radius of 50 meters with parts of the helicopter strewn all around, has already been secured and 30 armed guards are protecting it round the clock to ensure that nothing is disturbed. Only some key components like the Cockpit Voice Recorder and the Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) have been removed for further investigations.
As the probe progresses, the team will publish its outcome on a website, said Tyagi. He added that the team will also question the Air Traffic Controllers as part of its efforts to find out the causes behind the accident.
Earlier in the day, Chief Secretary Ramakant Reddy and Director General of Police SSP Yadav visited the remote crash site, after trekking for a considerable distance.
After inspecting the crash site and talking to the officials present at the scene, Ramakant Reddy said that the ELT had been found in a badly damaged condition.
"Apparently, when the helicopter hit the ground and its parts were flung asunder, the ELT also fell on the ground and it melted in the heat. Its wires, which linked to the helicopter engine, were snapped," he said, explaining why the ELT failed to function when it was supposed to become operational in case of a crash.
Reddy also denied reports about the state government's delayed response after YSR went missing on September 2. "As per the schedule, the chief minister's helicopter was supposed to land in Chittoor at 10.20 am. When that did not happen, I was alerted by the intelligence officials and an emergency crisis management centre was set up in my office," he said.
The chief secretary added that crisis management team member KVP Ramachandra Rao, then finance minister and present Chief Minister K Rosaiah, police officials and intelligence officials had also rushed to his office to deal with the situation.
