"Vital clues" have been collected by the high-powered committee of DGCA from the helicopter crash site which visited the dense Nallamalla forest range in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh today,official sources said. Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and four others were killed in the chopper crash in Nallamalla forest area on September 2. The five-member Director-General of Civil Aviation expert team led by R K Tyagi,Chairman and Managing Director of the Pawan Hans Corporation,probing into the causes of the helicopter crash,today carried out on-site investigations and examined the crash area within a radius of 100 meters between Rudrakonda and Pavuralagutta hills,they said. "The team members videographed the entire area of the crash site from different angles and also took photos before collecting the crucial pieces of the helicopter wreckage," said Kurnool District Superintendent of Police Ch Srikant. The expert team examined the crash site for about five hours on the hilly terrain and is likely to visit Kurnool once again after a week,the SP said. Meanwhile,according to unconfirmed reports the chopper was flying at an altitude over 3,000 feet above sea-level when it lost contact with ATC Hyderabad while possibly flying over the Nallamala forest area where the height of the hillocks are said to be about 1,800 ft.
