SMS to YSR's security officer helped track chopper wreckage

New Delhi, Sep 3 (PTI) An SMS received by a mobile phone
of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S R Reddy's security
officer John Wesley after the VVIP helicopter crashed is what
provided the most crucial clue to trace the accident site,
government officials said here Thursday.

"The most innovative means to locate the accident site
of the Bell-430 helicopter was adopted this morning by
tracking the signal from a mobile phone of one of the
passengers on board the helicopter. The mobile phone had
received an SMS at 1206 hours yesterday, about two-and-half
hours after the helicopter had gone missing from the radar,"
they said.

Though they refused to divulge details of the service
provider or the contents of the SMS, the officials said with
the help of the last signal from the mobile phone the crisis
committee set up in Hyderabad decided to concentrate their
search for Reddy's helicopter within a four-km radius from the
spot where the mobile phone signal was tracked.

On the suggestion of the IAF representative in the crisis
committee, two Chetak helicopters from Hakimpet Helicopter
Training School (HTS) of the Air Force was launched this
morning at 6.30 hours IST and after a two-hour search they
found the wreckage around 0830 hours IST. PTI NCB
ANU