Black Box of crashed AP CM's Bell 430 chopper found
Hyderabad: The 'Black Box or the flight voice recorder of the Bell 430-chopper which crashed on Wednesday on the Pavurala Gutta of Nallamallah forest area, killing Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajashekhara Reddy, has been found by the police. It has been handed over to the five-member enquiry committee appointed by the Director-General of Civil Aviation. The flight voice recorder would provide crucial clues to the cause of the crash that brought the chopper down. "Investigating officers of the Central Government's Civil Aviation asked
for some documents and material. We gave them the documents, including the cockpit
flight voice recorder, which is an important instrument that recorded all the
conversations from the time flight took off till it crashed," said Mukesh Kumar
Meena, Collector of Kurnool District. The DGCA team has been asked to submit the
report within two months. Meanwhile, a case of unnatural death has been registered at Atmakur police station following a complaint by a local revenue official. The police booked a case under Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code (IPC). Reddy's Bell 430 chopper went missing on Wednesday morning at about 9.35 and could only be located on Thursday morning following a night long search operation by different units of security personnel
including Army's Commandos, Air Force's Sukhoi-30, and 5,000 CRPF personnel. Reddy's
chopper wreckage was discovered atop a hill about 40 nautical miles from Kurnool
town. Along with YSR, four others-- Dr P Subramanium, the Special Secretary to
the Chief Minister; ASC Wesley, Chief Security Officer and two pilots Group Captain
SK Bhatia and Captain MS Reddy-died in the crash.
