Ill-fated plane on way to Kochi to take Joy Alukkas

Kochi, Sep 8 (UNI) The ill-fated P-68 aircraft which crashed into a lake bed in Bangalore this afternoon killing four people, was on way here to ferry the Chairman of Joy Alukkas Jewellery Group to Thiruvananthapuram and Tamil Nadu later today.

Talking to UNI here, Mr Joy Alukkas said his company had purchased the Italian-made four-seater plane in the US about eight months ago.

The four people aboard the aircraft were not company employees, he said. While Mr Santosh Kumar was the pilot, Mr Shanmugham was the co-pilot. The other two were their friends who were also pilots.

Mr Alukkas (56) was to have gone to Thiruvananthapuram and Tirunelveli, Tuticorin, Salem and Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu, where he had business interests, by the plane later this evening.

Stating it was not clear what went wrong with the plane, Mr Alukkas said as per available information, the pilot had informed the ATC, Bangalore that he was returning due to some problem.

However, the plane crashed before it could return to the airport, he said.

UNI