Somewhere in Hyderabad....

Six trainer aircraft and one Agusta Westland chopper meant for VVIP duty were reduced to cinders in a midnight blaze at the Andhra Pradesh Aviation Academy’s hangar in Begumpet airport in the heart of the city. The raging inferno was controlled after a two-hour firefight but it is still not clear whether the fire at the Nizamera hangar was due to electrical short circuit or sabotage.
Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, whose chopper was among the aircraft gutted, hauled up his officials and sought a criminal investigation department probe into the fire.
Administrative and CID officials said that according to preliminary findings, the fire was caused by a short-circuit, but did not rule out sabotage. Unconfirmed reports suggested there was power failure for a short period at the hangar and the short circuit occurred when electricity was restored.
The wrecked Bell chopper in which former CM Y S Rajasekhara Reddy died in September 2009 was also gutted.
According to sources, CCTV cameras at the hangar, too, were charred. However, the recorder, located at another place, was safe, and investigators have it in their possession.
There are three hangars in the north of Begumpet. One belongs to the IAF, the second to the Airports Authority of India and the third to AP Aviation Academy. A security guard claimed he first noticed the fire inside a storage cabin to the right of hangar-3 around 11.30 pm.
The fire soon spread to combustible stuff like PVC lining, wooden rafters and reached the parked aircraft.     Within minutes, two AAI fire tenders reached the spot, but by that time the stored ATF was on fire. Shortly after 11.50 pm, fire tenders from Secunderabad reached the spot followed by seven more from various places in the city. The fire was controlled only after two am.
The Aviation Academy staff assessed the loss and its secretary SN Reddy said four Cessna aircraft, one Pushpak, one Learjet-24 worth Rs 10 crore, one Agusta Westland 139 helicopter worth Rs 63 crore, and other goods worth Rs 12 crore were destroyed. Based on his complaint, the Begumpet police booked a fire mishap case.
A CID team led by chief T Krishna Prasad visited the spot and recorded the statements of security guards who said the fire spread fast with a loud bang indicating the bursting of an aircraft fuel tank.
A four-member team led by APFSL director O Narasimha Murthy also visited the spot and collected samples from the wreckage. Along with CID, the Hyderabad police, too, would be investigating the case. After the death of Rajasekhar Reddy in a chopper crash, a round-the-clock ground surveillance was put in place at the hangar where the VVIP chopper was parked.