Indian Navy's pilotless aircraft crashes in Kochi

 A Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) of the Indian Navy crashed during take off just outside the Naval base here today, a Defence spokesman said. No casualties were reported.
The incident occurred this morning when the Israeli-made pilotless aircraft took off from the Naval airport here for a routine sortie, he said.

The crash occurred due to technical reasons, he said "A remotely piloted aircraft 'Searcher' on a routine surveillance mission crashed north of the naval airfield INS Garuda after take off at 10:25 am," a Defence release said. However, there has been no casualty or damage to property. A Board of Inquiry as been constituted to investigate the cause of the accident," it said.
The spokesman said the crash has not caused any damage to the runway. 

A major tragedy was narrowly averted as the aircraft crashed near a bulk liquid terminal. The crash lead to a security scare too as Vice President Venkaiah Naidu was scheduled to come to Kochi at around 12 PM. 

With PTI inputs