Capt. Rajesh pilot, of missing chopper belongs to Patiala

Patiala: "He is alive and it is our faith in God that he will come to us very soon" these were the words of Rajiv Gaur brother of (44) the pilot of the ill-fated helicopter which went missing soon after it took off from Hyderabad on Sunday.
Rajiv said after graduation from Modi College, here in Patiala , Rajesh took the pilot training from Patiala aviation club and joined the prime minister office for flying helicopters. Later he left the job and joined Ranbaxy for its air service 'Ran Air'. Rajesh alongwith his wife and two children has been residing at Dawraka, New Delhi.
Rajiv said that Hired by MESCO Airlines from Ran Airways, the helicopter was to land in Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh for refueling after which it was to go to Raipur to take one of the State ministers to Ranchi and Daltongunj in Jharkhand.
"The helicopter had travelled 16 nautical miles after taking off from Hyderabad at 3 p.m. The last contact Chennai ATC had with the pilot was at 3.27 p.m.
Including Capt. Rajesh, pilot, it had on board four people –VP Singh co-pilot, B. Singh, an engineer and Vaibhav a technician.
07/08/08 Gagandeep Ahuja/PunjabNewsline.com

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Aug 2008, Safety Aug 2008