Small aircraft crashes in Bangalore, four killed

A six-seater aircraft crashed in a lake in Bangalore yesterday afternoon, killing all the four persons on board including the pilot.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police, Bangalore, Alok Kumar, the Cochin-bound private aircraft had crashed into the slush in a lake at Gowdanapalya in Bangalore after hitting a water tank.

Soon after the Italian-made aircraft plunged into the lake, apparently to avoid crashing into the densely populated Gowdanapalya locality in Bangalore, locals rushed to spot and managed to pull out a grieviously hurt person, who later succumbed to the injuries at a hospital.

The bodies of three others, who had died on the spot, were later extricated from the wreckage. The dead persons have been identified as Santosh Kumar, Sunil Joshi, Mohammed Shabbir and Shanmugam.

Though a technical fault has been identified as the reason for the crash, the exact cause would be investigated by a team of officials from Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Police and fire force personnel reached the spot and cordoned off the lake bed. Deputy Commissioner of Bangalore Urban Sadiq rushed to the spot to supervise the operation to pull out the aircraft’s wreckage from the slushy lake.