New Delhi, Jan 20th: Ruling out any foul play into last year's September 2 helicopter crash which killed then Chief Minister Dr YSR Reddy and four others, the government on Jan 20 said the report on the probe has termed ''loss of control'' as the chief reason behind the tragic incident. As per the probe, the probable cause of the accident was ''loss of control resulting in uncontrolled descent in the terrain at a very high rate due to entry into severe down draught,'' said the Civil Aviation Ministry. Besides, other contributory factors to the crash were that the crew flew in Instrument Flying condition though flight plan was cleared only for Visual Flight Rules (VFR).

The report by the independent probe panel, that was set up nearly three months back to look into the crash and headed by Pawan Hans chief R K Tyagi, was submitted to the ministry on January 15. The four-member committee consisted of IPS officer (retd) M R Reddy, an expert on VIP security, and former civil aviation director general H S Kola. Along with the committee, the CBI is also investigating into the incident which had taken place on September 2, 2009. 

The Central Government had appointed a four-member Committee of Inquiry, headed by Mr Tyagi, CMD, M/s Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited to investigate the accident of the Bell 430 helicopter (BT-APG) of Andhra Pradesh Government. The other members of the Committee were Capt Irshad Ahmed, Flight Operations Inspector (FOI, DGCA), Sanjay Bramhane, Senior Air Safety Officer, DGCA Mumbai, and Maneesh Kumar, Director of Air Safety, DGCA.