Ran Air to seek insurance claim for crashed copter

Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh, Nov 17 (UNI) Private airline company Ran Air is considering to seek insurance claim of Rs two crore for its Bell 430 aircraft that crashed on the Andhra Pradesh-Chhattisgarh border killing four people on board even as search for the black box of the helicopter continued.

The charred remains of pilot B P Singh and three others were found in dense forest in Andhra Pradesh's Khammam district few days before though the aircraft crashed on its way from Hyderabad to Raipur in heavy rains on August 3.

The chopper was hired by the Chhattisgarh government to ferry its Home Minister Ramvichar Netam to Ranchi to attend a programme of BJP President Rajnath Singh.

Earlier attempts to trace the copter, which lost its contact with ATS 30 minutes after it took off from Hyderabad, proved futile due to bad weather and fear of naxalites active in the forest region.

A 22-member team, consisting Ran Air pilot, navigator, engineer, weather scientist and other experts, reached the spot and searched the area to get the black box of the chopper yesterday.

The skeletons of the crew were recovered with the help of police and local villagers and the remains were shifted to MGM Hospital in Warangal. Its sample were sent to the Hyderabad-based laboratory for DNA test. Later, the pilot's family members reached there and took the remains of Mr Singh to perform the last rites.

UNI XC-KV SV KP1658