Wiser after YSR death, Lalu lets pilot decide whether to fly

In the wake of the helicopter crash that took place in bad weather killing former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad on Saturday let the pilot of his copter have the final say in deciding whether to fly or not.

"Pilots keep refusing us. We (politicians) think why they are doing it. They know the weather but we don't. We say 'look the sky is clear and let's go. But if we say this, the pilot should get off the helicopter and refuse to fly", Prasad said.

The RJD chief took off in a helicopter today for campaigning in by-elections to 18 assembly seats in Bihar after an assurance from the pilot that everything was all right and the weather perfect.

"Kya pilot saheb sab thik thak ba na ... Ap kahiyega to chadhenge (let us know whether everything is all right, then we will board)," he told the pilot before boarding the chartered helicopter along with his LJP counterpart Ramvilas Paswan.

Prasad had been arraigned for the landing of an IAF helicopter on the national highway while undertaking an aerial survey of flood-hit areas of Bihar in August 2007 without permission.

However, a court in Bihar absolved him of the charge.

Reddy was killed in a helicopter crash in Kurnool district after it went missing on its way to Chittoor from Hyderabad on September 2.