Tirupati 1993: When a plane crash carrying stars like Chiranjeevi, Balakrishna, Venkatesh ended in a miracle

A 1993 Indian Airlines crash near Tirupati carrying over 270 people, including Tollywood celebrities, ended miraculously with all passengers surviving. The event resurfaced as villagers recalled the incident following the recent tragic Air India crash in Ahmedabad

Hyderabad: The recent Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, that claimed around 270 lives, will always remain an unforgettable experience for the entire nation. There are many such air disasters, where planes carrying hundreds of passengers crashed killing everyone on board.

But do you know that one such very serious incident took place in one of our Telugu States where in an Indian Airlines plane belly landed, but every passenger on board had miraculously survived the crash.

On November 15, 1993 an Indian Airlines plane on its way to Hyderabad took off from Madras (now Chennai). The passengers included several big shots of the Telugu Film industry like Chiranjeevi, Balakrishna, Vijayashanti, Venkatesh and Allu Ramalingaiah among others, crashlanded in a paddy field near Tirupati after developing a technical snag.

As the latest instance of Ahmedabad plane crash news spread out, the locals who witnessed the Tirupati plane crash are now recollecting the shocking incident.

Now a Facebook post by journalist Karthik, who works for a Telugu news channel NTv, managed to locate one of the eye-witnesses to the 1993 crashlanding and did a detailed post on his facebook wall. Karthik located and managed to speak to 80-year-old Desi Reddy who walked down the memory lane and narrated the spine chilling events of the crash.

On the day of the incident, the Hyderabad-bound Indian Airlines 440 Airbus took off with 272 passengers and cabin crew from Madras at around 6.20 AM. The plane reached Begumpet Airport around 7 AM but as it was a peak winter morning, dense fog shrouded the airport premises. As the pilot couldn’t spot the airport’s runway, he decided to go back to Madras. But while returning, the plane had to travel at a low speed and low altitude due to some technical snag, resulting in emptying of the plane’s fuel tank.

Despite the pilot’s attempts to fly the plane to Madras, it had to belly land in a field in Gundapalle village which was 14 nautical miles from Tirupati airport, after running out of fuel. Miraculously, all the 272 passengers and crew on the plane survived safely, with only four sustaining minor injuries.

Soon after hearing the loud noise, the villagers rushed to the spot. Desi Reddy, who was the Sarpach of the village at that time, recalled. Soon after the incident police personnel surrounded the place and rescued the passengers. According to Reddy, as soon as the news broke out former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Marri Channa Reddy reached the spot as his daughter and granddaughter were among the passengers. The former sarpanch said that he had witnessed the pilot, Captain Ram P Bhalla and co-pilot Val Raj, shiver in fear after coming out of the plane which forcelanded.

Reddy recalled how he had offered water and other refreshments to Chiranjeevi, Balakrishna and Allu Ramalingaiah and comforted them as they were in distress.

Soon after the incident, Reddy said, the actors asked him what they could offer to the villagers as a token of gratitude. The villagers asked for a hospital, they did promise, it was not fulfilled.

As per reports, the passenger list of the plane included actors Chiranjeevi, Balakrishna, Venkatesh, Vijayashanti, Allu Ramalingaiah and his wife, Malasree, Comedian Sudhakar, Costume Krishna, Directors Kodi Ramakrishna, SV Krishna Reddy, Uppalapati Narayana Rao, Bapu, writers Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao, MD Sundaram, producers K Sekhar Babu, Katragadda Prasad, Raasi movies Narasimharao, Choreographer Suchitra, fight master Super Subbarayan, photographers KS Hari, Anumolu Hari, and Chiranjeevi’s personal makeup man Shiva among others.