Ill-fated plane was on way to Kochi to take Joy Alukkas to TVM, TN

Kochi, Sep 8 (UNI) The ill-fated P-68 aircraft which crashed in a lake bed in Bangalore this afternoon, killing four people, was on way to Kochi to ferry the chairman of the 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 on board the plane were their friends and also pilots, he said.

Mr Alukkas, 56, was to have gone to Thiruvananthapuram and Tirunelvelli, Tuticorin, Salem and Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu, where he has 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 crash landed before it could return to the airport, he said.

UNI