Crash caused by fire?

By Pranab Dhal Samanta

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 30. Speculation was rife tonight over the cause behind the crash of the ill-fated C-90 Beechcraft carrying the senior Congress leader, Mr. Madhavrao Scindia, and a team of journalists earlier in the day.

One of the theories doing the rounds was that the plane caught fire. This is based on reports coming in from the crash site, where some residents said they saw the plane coming down in flames. However, the C-90 is a twin-engine aircraft and experienced pilots here said even if one of the engines caught fire, the pilot should have managed to reach the nearest airfield.

Moreover, the aircraft had an automatic fire extinguishing system in place. If this system were to fail, the pilot also had the option of extinguishing the fire manually.

There was also speculation over the possibility of the aircraft getting caught in bad weather. However, this too was being run down by some experienced pilots here on the ground that the Beechcraft C-90 is technologically sound to overcome such conditions.

What has perplexed most aviation experts is that in any of these cases the pilot should have been in a position to inform Lucknow Air Traffic Control. On the contrary, until about 10 minutes before the crash, the pilot had reported that all was fine with the flight.

Meanwhile, there was talk among ATC sources here that the pilot probably did contact the Air Force ATC at Chakeri near Kanpur, but no confirmation was available on this account. If such a contact was established, it could provide important clues to what might have gone wrong.

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Section  : National
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