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Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow
Uttar Pradesh Principal Secretary (Civil Aviation) Sheshank Shekhar Singh on Monday said bad weather seems to have been responsible for the air crash, in which senior Congress leader Madhavrao Scindia and seven others died on Sunday afternoon.
Singh is a career pilot with nearly three decades of flying experience.
Singh said, "The pilot seems to have lost control over the aircraft due to extremely bad weather resulting in the crash."
Having long experience in flying the same type of aircraft in the Uttar Pradesh government fleet, Singh refused to accept various versions given out by different people about the crash.
"To me it seems strange that the aircraft could have caught fire in mid-air and the pilot did not get to know about it; a fire in any corner of the aircraft is displayed on the cockpit panel following which the first reaction of any pilot would be to send an SOS to ground control - which was not done," he said.
The principal civil aviation secretary was also reluctant to accept the theory that the aircraft had lost contact with the air traffic control.
"Simply because one has not communicated with ATC, does not mean that it had lost contact; after all no pilot is expected to keep his communication channel open with the ground staff every minute of the flight; it is only when some communication is required that the channel is opened," he pointed out.
Singh also considers stories about 'bail out' by two of the passengers on board as rather naïve.
"Only fighter planes have the facility of ejector-chairs or to bail-out with para-shoots; such things are non-existent in any civilian passenger aircraft," he clarified.
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