An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) of Indian Navy crashed at Wellington Island in Kochi just one and a half hours before the arrival of Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu at the city's naval airport on Tuesday, November 21.
Navy officials have been quoted by local reports as saying that the UAV was on a routine training session when it crashed at around 10:25 am.
Though no casualty was reported, the incident was immediately taken care of as Naidu was scheduled to arrive at the defence base at noon.
Moreover, the authorities had to work quickly to prevent a bigger accident because the crash site was close to a bulk liquid terminal facility (which stores potentially explosive compounds).
Though it is being suspected that the failure of the aircraft's engine led to the crash, officials have said the exact reason of the crash is not yet known.
Meanwhile an Indian Express report has said the Navy has ordered an inquiry into the accident.
The UAV, which was manned by a remote control system, was being used to carry out surveillance over ocean borders.
Kochi: Remotely Piloted Aircraft searcher on a routine surveillance mission crashed while taking off North of naval airfield at Wellington Island at 1025 hours. No damage to life or property reported. pic.twitter.com/o7EUoeEE7e
— ANI (@ANI) November 21, 2017
A UAV of the Indian Air Force had crashed near Ladoli village in Rajbagh area of Kathua district in Jammu and Kashmir in August.
Before that, another UAV called Lakshya, which was being tested at the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur in Odisha's Balesore district, had crashed in an open ground near Chandamani at Baliapal in April.
