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DGCA collects plane wreckage

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, APRIL 18. Three experts from the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) today conducted preliminary investigation at the site of the air crash that killed actress Soundarya and three others here on Saturday.

A representative of the team told The Hindu that it would take about two months to complete the investigation. The team members, drawn from Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, spent about a couple of hours at the site of the crash collecting pieces of debris. The bigger parts of the crashed plane Cessna 180 were loaded onto a truck.

Asked about the initial findings, he said: "It is difficult to say. It is subjective. There can be many reasons for (an aircraft) crash." Could there be some specific reasons for an aircraft crashing immediately after takeoff?

He said that, "nothing could be said at this stage." A small aircraft such as the Cessna 180 did not have a "black box". The representatives of Agni Aviation, which owned the aircraft, assisted them.

Directorate sources said that documents pertaining to the aircraft had been seized. Manufactured in 1955, it had been tested and certified in January for flying. Agni Aviation had bought the aircraft a year ago from Nexus Computers, a Pondicherry-based firm. It had flown 7,000 hours, including the 110 hours after Agni Aviation bought it.

The aircraft, piloted by John Philip, took off from the Jakkur airfield on Bellary Road here for Hyderabad with Soundarya, her brother, Amarnath, and the Hindu Jagran Vedike leader, Ramesh Kadam, before it crashed on the campus of the Gandhi Krishi Vigyan Kendra of the University of Agricultural Sciences. The aircraft reportedly caught fire after crashing and the four were killed on the spot. The pilot, aged about 28, had about 400 hours of flying experience.

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