Time to overhaul VIP flights?

AP CM Y S R Reddy and four others who travelled with him were killed in a chopper crash in Rudrakonda in the hills of Nallamala forest near Kurnool due to bad weather. Special secretary P Subramanyam, chief secretary A S C Wesley, group pilot Captain S K Bhatia and co-pilot M S Reddy also died in the same helicopter crash. Bhatia had contacted Chennai ATC, but it is not know why he did so.

But the death of Y S R Reddy is only the latest in a series of crashes that have affected Congress's prominent politicians over the past three decades. Some of the other important ones include:

• Sanjay Gandhi: He was killed when his glider crashed at the Safdarjung airport in Delhi on June 23, 1980.
  
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• Madhavrao Scindia: The deputy leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha killed in a plane crash on September 30, 2001.
  
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• G M C Balayogi: Died in a copter crash on March 3, 2002 in Kaikalur, West Godavari District, AP.
  
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• O P Jindal and Surendra Singh: Killed when the helicopter crashed in a village in Haryana on March 31, 2005.