The Hindu : Front Page : Cessna aircraft crash-lands into lake; pilots injured

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Sunday, Jul 17, 2005

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Cessna aircraft crash-lands into lake; pilots injured

Staff Reporter

It was engaged for cloud-seeding operations in Andhra Pradesh

BANGALORE: Two pilots were injured when a six-seater aircraft, meant to take up cloud-seeding operations in Andhra Pradesh, crash-landed into Jakkur Lake around 5.30 p.m. here on Saturday.

This was one of the three Cessna-340 aircraft hired by Agni Aviation Consultants (AAC) for cloud seeding and it had arrived here from Karachi three days ago. It had travelled from Texas in the U.S. to the city via Iceland and Egypt.

Arvind Sharma, Chief Executive Officer of AAC, said the pilots were in conversation with the Air Traffic Control when they suddenly "began to lose height for reasons that are not clear."

The pilots diverted it towards the water body to avoid civilian casualties, he said.

When it crash-landed, the pilot, Tushar Thakkar (27), a resident of the U.S., and co-pilot, Rajiv Gopal (26) of Mumbai, came out of the aircraft.

The villagers managed to bring them to the banks of the lake and admitted them to Columbia Hospital on Jakkur Main Road.

Their parents have been contacted. The pilots were out of danger, but were in a state of shock, Capt. Sharma said.

The Deputy Commissioner of Police (North), Syed Ulfat Hussain, said the aircraft had secured the clearance from the office of the Director of Airworthiness, HAL airport, to carry out operations in Andhra Pradesh. It was flying into the Jakkur airfield from the HAL airport for night halt.

Mr. Hussain said they had already informed the regional office of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) office in Hyderabad.

"A team of DGCA officials will come to the city on Sunday and carry out further investigation," Mr. Hussain told The Hindu.

This is the second crash involving a Cessna aircraft.

It was on April 17, 2004, a four-seater Cessna-180 aircraft, hired by AAC, crashed. soon after take-off from the Jakkur airfield. Four persons, including film actress Soundarya were killed. Soundarya and her brother, Amarnath (34), were on their way to Karimnagar in Andhra Pradesh to campaign for the BJP and Telugu Desam Party for the Lok Sabha elections.

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