YSR chopper was not airworthy: probe team

 However, it has further said that was not a contributing factor to the accident.  
The probe panel headed by Pawan Hans chief R K Tyagi also established that there was "no evidence" to indicate any interference in the flight operations by the VIP on board.

The primary cause of the crash of the Bell-403 chopper on September 2 last year was the error of the crew, which after noticing a fault in the oil transmission pressure “was engrossed for vital six minutes before the impact in searching for the relevant checklist from the Flight Manual."

The report pointed out that the number one engine of the chopper had experienced two technical problems on earlier flights which required maintenance action before the helicopter was released for the next flight.

The maintenance engineers and the flight crew “ignored this advisory before operating the flight on September two.”

But both engines operated normally and remained capable of producing the required power till the time of the crash, the enquiry committee found.

"Thus the helicopter was probably not airworthy when it was released for flight on September 2, even though it was not a contributory factor to the accident," the report added.