The Bell 430 was then taken out of service for the chief minister due to its limited seating capacity and lack of night-landing capability.

This is not the first incident of this kind involving Bell choppers in Andhra Pradesh.

In March 2002, a Bell 206 B-3 Jetranger helicopter, owned by Deccan Aviation Pvt Ltd, crashed in Andhra Pradesh killing then Lok Sabha speaker G.M.C. Balayogi.

After hitting a coconut tree and high-tension power lines, it crashed in a fishpond at Kovvadalanka while flying from Bhimavaram to Hyderabad.

In another incident, a Bell 430 chopper crashed in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh killing four people, according to the DGCA website.

Bell 430 is a four-blade twin-engine high-speed corporate and executive helicopter capable of speeding up to 257 km an hour. It can carry five passengers besides two pilots.