The Hindu : Front Page : 2 Haryana Ministers killed in copter crash

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Friday, Apr 01, 2005

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2 Haryana Ministers killed in copter crash

By Our Staff Reporter

O.P. Jindal

SAHARANPUR (UTTAR PRADESH), MARCH 31. The Haryana Agriculture Minister, Surender Singh, 59, and his Cabinet colleague and industrialist, O.P. Jindal, 75, were killed this afternoon when their helicopter crashed near Mehnge village here. They were on their way from Chandigarh to New Delhi.

Mr. Surender Singh is the son of the former Chief Minister, Bansi Lal. Mr. Jindal, father of Naveen Jindal, Congress MP, held the Power portfolio.

The pilot, P. S. Chauhan, was alive when the villagers reached the crash site, but died later. The other two occupants of the French-made Euro King helicopter — Haryana MLA Ved Goyal, and Mr. Jindal's Personal Security Officer, Vinod Kumar — miraculously survived with leg and back injuries. They were admitted to hospital here.

The helicopter, with the call sign of VTVYJ had been one of two bought by Mr. Jindal six months ago and had been used extensively in the last Haryana Assembly elections. It had lifted off from Chandigarh around noon. It crashed 35 minutes later after apparently developing a technical snag. An eyewitness, Sukhdev Singh, who was working on the fields when the chopper crashed less than 100 metres from him, said: "The helicopter from which a strange sound was emanating had first flown past Mehnge village. However, it soon returned wobbling in the air and hovered around a bit as the pilot was apparently looking for a wet field to land on. But then it just crashed on the field where peasants were cutting wheat."

Surendar Singh

Mr. Singh said on hitting the ground, the helicopter first went up 20 feet in the air before coming down on its left side.

"Since the chopper had not caught fire, villagers immediately rushed to it and pulled out all the five persons. Mr. Jindal and Mr. Singh were already dead," he said.

PTI reports:

A TRAGEDY: The helicopter that crashed near Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh yesterday, killing two Haryana Ministers and the pilot. — Photo: S. Subramanium

The last rites of Mr. Singh and Mr. Jindal will be held with full state honours in Bhiwani and Hissar. The Haryana Government has declared a three-day State mourning. The Directorate-General of Civil Aviation has instituted an inquiry into the crash, the Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel, said in New Delhi.

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