The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Pilot killed, engineer injured as aircraft crashes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 30, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Pilot killed, engineer injured as aircraft crashes

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, DEC. 29. A pilot of the Andhra Pradesh Aviation Academy died and an engineer was critically injured when their two-seater aircraft crashed near Chintal Tanda village, at Nagarjunasagar reservoir in Guntur district, on Wednesday afternoon.

The aircraft had earlier force-landed on an abandoned airstrip near the crash site on Saturday. It was being test-flown today after repairs.

The pilot, Anil Prakash, and engineer Rajnikant were rushed to Kamala Nehru Hospital, near Vijayapuri, where the pilot died. Mr. Rajnikant has been airlifted to Hyderabad for treatment.

According to the Gurajala DSP, Chalapathi Rao, the aircraft took off around 1 p.m. after repairs and it was airborne for an hour. The pilot landed and again took off. ``It crashed within moments ," Mr. Rao told The Hindu over telephone.

A jeep driver, hired by the aircraft crew, and two policemen posted to guard the aircraft rushed to the crash site. They rushed the two to Kamala Nehru Hospital.

Police not sure of snag

The police were not sure as to what technical problem forced the plane to land on the airstrip on Saturday. After landing the plane, Anil Prakash contacted the police and requested them to post some policemen for guarding the plane. Accordingly, two constables were posted.

The crew, it was said, had stayed in the Punnami restaurant at Nagarjunasagar and hired a jeep for their travel to the airstrip, seven km away.

Before leaving for the airstrip on Wednesday morning, the crew interacted with some police officers at Punnami restaurant and were believed to have told them that the repairs were complete. However, they did not disclose what exactly was the problem.

Officials at the Aviation Academy, located in Old Bowenpally, refused to divulge any information on the crash.

Nehru used this airstrip

Our Guntur Staff

Reporter adds:

The airstrip was under use when Nagarjunasagar project was under construction. It is said that the strip was used years ago for landing the plane in which the then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, arrived.

Autopsy on the body of Anil Prakash was conducted at the Hill colony hospital near Nagarjunasagar.The police are waiting for his relatives to collect the body.

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