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Indian-American doctor-couple killed in plane crash in U.S.

Washington: An Indian-American doctor couple were killed after their single engine aircraft crashed onto a corn field in Ohio shortly after takeoff on Sunday.

The New Jersey-based couple, Dr. Viswanathan Rajaraman, 54, a well known brain cancer specialist who was piloting the aircraft, and Dr. Mary J. Sundaram, 50, arrived in Columbus on Friday after visiting their daughter Kaavya Viswanathan, controversial author, in Washington D.C. Kaavya, 24, made headlines in 2006 following allegations of plagiarism against her novel, ‘How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life'.

They had re-fuelled their plane at the Rickenbacker airport, Lt. Gary Lewis of the Ohio State Highway Patrol said. Shortly after takeoff, the plane crashed onto the field south of the runway, killing them both, The Columbus Dispatch reported.

Rajaraman, who hailed from Tamil Nadu, was a licensed pilot.

Doug Smith, a battalion chief with the Columbus Division of Fire, said firefighters from Rickenbacker were checking equipment and saw the plane go down shortly before 9 a.m. — PTI

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Indian-American doctor-couple killed in plane crash in U.S.

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