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According to a senior official of AP government, the helicopter, in which the late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and others were travelling, hit a hillock before exploding.
The bodies of all five people have been charred due to the fire that had swallowed the chopper after the crash and explosion. The bodies, which were discovered on Thursday morning, had almost decomposed.
“It appears that because of inclement weather and to avoid cloud formation, the pilot had taken a detour and in the process deviated from the regular flight path. From preliminary inquiry, it appears the chopper hit the cliff of a hillock, crashed into it and perhaps exploded,” said Chief Secretary P. Ramakant Reddy.
A deviation of about 18 km to the east from the regular flight path has been recorded. “On first examination we were communicated that the bodies were charred and getting into decomposition.
“The chopper was in bits and pieces, strewn all over on the peak of hillock, about 40 nautical miles from Kurnool town,” he told reporters, giving the first official account of the crash.
The search for the missing chopper, which resumed its mission on Thursday morning around 6.25 am, spotted the chopper around 8.30 a.m.
The commandos had to be air-dropped near the site. Reddy said no one except the commandos could reach the crash site.
“The commandos located three bodies, sometime later a fourth one and with great difficulty found the fifth. The bodies were in a state of decomposition due to rains in the area since yesterday,” Reddy said.
The bodies have been flown to Kurnool town, where an autopsy would be conducted.
