The state and the centre government continues to be stumped by the mysterious disappearance of Arunachal Pradesh CM Dorjee Khandu's (in pic) helicopter that went missing on Saturday, 20-minutes after take-off.
The state and the centre government continues to be stumped by the mysterious disappearance of Arunachal Pradesh CM Dorjee Khandu's (in pic) helicopter that went missing on Saturday, 20-minutes after take-off. The Army, Air Force, ISRO, state police, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and civilians from the remote area of Tawang district started the search operation for the missing CM from the break of light last morning, but no success was reached till late evening.
Kiren Rijiju, advisor to Khandu, said, "Till now we have not been able to trace the missing Pawan Hans chopper. The entire union and state machinery is on the job to find it. We also have sent messages to all the villages in the area where the helicopter took off and the villagers too are on the search operation."
Chopper in China?
Speculations are ripe that the chopper might have crossed the Chinese border because the last radio communication with Guwahati air traffic control confirms the location of the chopper to be near Sela Pass area, which is very close to the Chinese border. "The chopper entering the China border cannot be denied, as the border lies just 15 to 20 minutes from the Sela Pass area," said a top official of Arunachal Pradesh government.
"We are in touch with the central agencies, who are taking the required measures to investigate this."
Rigorous Search
Meanwhile, the Army was on the job with 30 different teams comprising 2,400 personnel, while the Air Force roped its two supersonic Sukhoi aircraft and two Cheetah helicopters to intensify the search operation. ISRO too, took the satellite pictures to trace the chopper but to no avail. Six ITBP teams with 25 personnel each and around 500 state police personnel are also on the mission.
In the past
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's Bell 430 helicopter went missing on September 2 2009 at 9:35 am. Begumpet and Shamshabad Air Traffic controllers lost contact with the aircraft at 10:02 am while it was passing through the dense area of Nallamala. Elite commandos armed with night vision equipment joined 2,000-odd security forces, six choppers and Sukhoi jets for the rescue of the CM. The PMO confirmed the death of all the people on board the next day.
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