YSR's chopper was well maintained, says AP govt

The Andhra Pradesh government has stressed that all the mandatory maintenance work and checks were carried out on the Bell-430 helicopter before it took off for its last journey on September 2 and crashed killing the state Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and four others.

The Crisis Management Committee of the state government comprising of the chief secretary, director general of police and principal secretary-home has also clarified that the pilots had taken regular briefing from the meteorological department on the weather conditions on their route from Hyderabad to Chittoor. It said that all the established procedure laid down by the director general of civil aviation were followed leading to the launch of the helicopter on the day.

In a press release the committee denied that there was no armed guard at Begumpet Airport to guard the Helicopter. "A guard of  the City Armed Reserve was guarding the helicopter.This arrangement is in vogue since 10 years", it said. 
 
According to the release the preparations for the chief minsister's travel by helicopter began as early as on August 31 when the tour program was communicated by the AP Aviation Corporation to the pilots, and Maintenance Wing (Hangar).  The Aircraft Maintenance Engineer of Bell-430 Helicopter confirmed that Helicopter was fit for flight and got valid Certificate of Release to Service (CRS) and also the CRS for radio equipment was valid up to 05-12-2009.

The Bell-430 is well maintained and was in very good condition, complying all the requirements of the DGCA, to keep in Air worthiness condition at all times. The engineering maintenance was done by the most experienced personnel, it said,

On September 1, the pilot Captain S K Bhatia carried out a proficiency check with Captain M S Reddy, on the Bell-430 helicopter. The duration of the flight was 1.15 hrs and after flight the pilot reported that the helicopter was fit in all aspects. 

On the fateful day the process of preparations began at 05.00 hrs when the maintenance staff arrived at the hangar and carried out pre-flight inspection as per the approved schedule of DGCA by aircraft maintenance engineer M L Rao.

At 0615 hrs, the doctors completed the pre-flight medical examination of the pilots. Captain S K Bhatia, designated as pilot in command accepted the helicopter from the aircraft maintenance engineer. The flight duration was 10 minutes after which the pilots reported all systems being serviceable and positioned at the VVIP point at Begumpet airport for the inspection of Bomb Detection and Disposable Team of Intelligence Security Wing. The BDDT inspected the helicopter, including the cabin, baggage, surroundings and path up to VVIP lounge, as the scheduled departure was at 0730 hrs. 
 
The pilot-in-command obtained prior clearance from ATC as per procedure of DGCA by applying in prescribed form duly indicating the origin, destination (co-ordinates) altitude at which they intend to fly route etc. They also attended personally to take Meteorology Department briefing and obtained a copy of the same in writing.

At about 0830 hrs the helicopter took off with three passengers Dr.YS Rajasekhara Reddy, P Subrahmanyam and  ACS Wesley. 

The crisis management team said that internal security audit was being carried out as per the DGCA approved schedule and last such audit was done in May last. The team also clarified that the Cockpit Voice Recorder of the crashed helicopter was not decoded till now. The CVR was in partly damaged condition and the Indian Company representatives of the manufacturers were called and shown the CVR for decoding. Further the experts from Air works company were arriving Delhi from Chennai to examine the possibility of decoding.  In case it is difficult to decode, the DGCA has confirmed that the CVR, would be sent to USA, under escort, for decoding.