Hyderabad: Agencies inquiring into the fire mishap, at the Begumpet airport, found no concrete evidence to confirm that storing of aviation fuel, in drums, caused the quick spread of fire and large scale damage, as was suspected earlier.
The State-owned Agusta Westland helicopter, used by the Chief Minister, and six trainer aircrafts, were gutted in the freak mishap on December 18.
The Government, besides entrusting the investigation to the Criminal Investigation Department, also set up a three-member high level panel to inquire into the circumstances leading to the fire accident.
Home principal secretary T.P. Das, agriculture special chief secretary I.Y.R. Krishna Rao and H.N. Mishra, assistant director (air safety), director general of civil aviation constitute the committee.
Sources told this newspaper that the three-member panel sent a questionnaire to all the departments involved and is obtaining inputs from the investigating authorities also as to whether or not they fulfilled their obligations of the day.
10/01/13 N. Vamsi Srinivas/Deccan Chronicle
