In November last year, too, he had a miraculous escape when the AW 139 helicopter he was returning from a trip to Mahbubnagar developed a major technical snag midair. It was the chopper's maiden flight, and had been acquired only recently. Travelling with the Andhra Pradesh chief minister where his his special secretary K Prabhakara Reddy and chief security officer Uday Kumar.
Everything seemed fine till chopper's electrical fuse started popping out, but the pilot, Capt M Jagan Mohan Raju, fixed it and continued the flight. The incident recurred in a few minutes, but did not cause any major hiccups to the 20-minute long flight.
Experts said this snag could have proved disastrous, and the chopper was grounded for a few days after the incident.
This time round, YSR flew by a Bell 430 helicopter, leading former Andhra DGP P Ramulu to question its use. According to him, the AW 139 helicopter is a much safer helicopter.
