Indian government rules out any sabotage in IA plane crash

[S.Ramani]

Country - India
Source - Press Trust of India
Sent by - S. Ramani
Date - April 27, 1993

Government rules out sabotage in IA plane crash

New Delhi, Apr 27 (PTI) The government today prima facie
ruled out sabotage as the cause for the crash of an Indian
airlines plane at Aurangabad and said it has decided to
institute a judicial inquiry into the accident in which 55
persons were killed.
The civil aviation and tourism minister, Ghulam Nabi
Azad, who had visited the crash site yesterday, said in a suo
moto statement in both houses of parliament, that the director
general of civil aviation (dgca) has commenced preliminary
investigations into the mishap.
He said the accident occurred when the aircraft had just
taken off from Aurangabad for Bombay. ''before the aircraft
could gain enough height, its wheel gear hit a high-rise
truck, loaded with cotton , passing on the road close to
the runway outside the perimeter wall at the eastern end'', he
said.
The landing gear of the aircraft, with 112 passengers
and six crew members, broke off under the impact and it
swerved to the left. Thereafter it hit a power transmission
line and crashed in a field at a distance of about seven km
from the airport, he said.
replying to queries in lok sabha, the minister said that
those killed in the mishap were due to a fire in the aircraft
immediately after the crash. he said 12 of the surviving
passengers, who had sustained injury were admitted to the
local hospit al. while three of them left the hospital after
first aid, the rest are recovering.

Aurangabad, April 27 (PTI) The CIDCO police today
registered an offence against capt S.N Singh and Manisha
Mohan, pilot and co-pilot of the indian airlines boeing 737
which crashed here yesterday, killing 55 persons.
They have been accused of "reckless" flying and charged
under section 304, 337, 338 of IPC.
the plane crashed within minutes of its take-off from
the airport.

Bombay, apr 27 (pti) the bodies of seven of the victims
of the aurangabad air crash yesterday were flown into the city
by a hopping flight from Delhi (IC-491) today, indian airlines
sources said.
the bodies were those of flight purser P S Vivek,
airhostess Laxmi Raman, a calcutta-based a 320 pilot capt
Sanjeev Mulherkar and his wife Alka, industrialist Mahavir
Podar and his son Suresh Podar, and Vanita Manek, wife of tour
and travel operator mr b manek who also died in the crash.
Podar is the chairman of Siyaram silk mills and his
son is the executive director of Balkrishna tyres, a plant
based in Aurangabad.
there was a delay in handing over the bodies as the
coroner of cooper hospital was unavailable. waiting relatives
expressed their displeasure and annoyance over the delay.
the bodies of Vivek and Laxmi would be flown to delhi
later tonight while the bodies of Capt Mulherkar and his wife
were claimed by his brother suhas and the funeral would be
held here. The bodies of their daughter and son have not yet
been recovered, airline officials said.
the airlines today operated another ferry flight to
Aurangabad which will return via Udaipur tonight. The flight
from Aurangabad to Udaipur will carry some of the bodies of
the crash victims.

* The Dollar Rate

Source - Press Trust of India
Date - Apr 27, 1993

Bombay, April 27 (PTI) the reserve bank of india's
reference rate' for the U.S. dollar today is Rs.31,4000 as
against rs.31,3800 on the last working day.
The reference rate is based on 12 noon rates of a few
select banks in Bombay.
The sdr-rupee rate and rates of exchange for asian
clearing union currencies will be based on this rate.

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