By IANS
Bangalore : Rajeev Lochan, scientific secretary to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), was killed late Friday in a road mishap in Andhra Pradesh, it was announced Saturday.
An ISRO official told IANS on phone that Lochan died along with driver Chandran when the Ambassador car in which they were travelling to Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh from Bangalore on an official trip met with an accident near Pakala, about 40 km from Tirupati.
ISRO publications director S. Krishnamurthy, who was accompanying Lochan, suffered multiple injuries in the mishap and was rushed to a hospital in the temple town of Tirupati for treatment.
“The officials were going to Shar (Sriharikota) for the launch of Insat-4CR from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, scheduled for Sep 1. The mishap occurred when the car rammed into a truck that was stranded on the state highway in darkness due to poor visibility,” the official said.
Mourning Lochan’s sudden and tragic death, a shocked ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair told reporters that it was an unfortunate incident in which the country lost an able space scientist.
Lochan, who had a doctorate in aerospace engineering, is survived by his wife and two children.
According to doctors at the Sri Venkateshwara Institute of Medical Science in Tirupati, Krishnamurthy was under observation and responding to treatment.