Itanagar:
A helicopter carrying Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu and four others went missing on Saturday shortly after takeoff from Tawang and apprehensions grew about their fate with search operations yielding no results. (
Read: Who is Dorjee Khandu)
The Chief Minister, along with four others, had taken off in a Pawan Hans Eurocopter B3 craft at 9:56 am and was to land at Itanagar at 11:30 am. Tawang is about 200 km from Itanagar.
The base received last communication from the chopper when it was flying over Sela Pass, 20 minutes after taking off from Tawang. All communications were lost after that. (
Read: ISRO roped in to trace Arunachal CM's chopper)
There was confusion in the afternoon with claims made by the Governor, Gen (retd) J J Singh, Chief Minister's Office and Defence spokesperson that Mr Khandu had landed safely in a place called Daporijo in Upper Subansiri district. The CM's office said the helicopter had landed in a place in Bhutan.
However, later in the evening there were denials from all concerned saying helicopter has not been located and that the search operation was still on.
"The helicopter is missing and the search operation is still on," Union Home Secretary Gopal K Pillai said in New Delhi in the evening.
The Arunachal Pradesh government said that it is yet to ascertain the whereabouts of the Pawan Hans chopper which went missing since morning with the Chief Minister and four others on board. (
Read: High-level meeting on chopper crisis)
Arunachal Pradesh Deputy Inspector General of Police Robin Hibu said joint search operation for the missing copter will be conducted by Army, Air Force and state police from Sunday morning by air and through ground.
The five on board included crew members Captain J S Babbar and Captain K S Malick, Khandu's security officer Yeshi Choddak and Yeshi Lamu, sister of Tawang MLA Tsewang Dhondup.
Defence spokesman Wing Commander Ranjeev Sahoo said in Shillong that two IAF Cheetah helicopters were sent for the rescue and search operations.
The request for help reached the air force at 1230 hours and the two helicopters took off within 40 minutes, the Defence spokesman said.
"They have flown from Tezpur and searched the route from Tawang to Itanagar. Because of inclement weather they had to come back after two hours of search. But they could not locate the missing chopper. If needed they would be sent again tomorrow," Sahoo said.
Pawan Hans officials said in Guwahati, "We have not been able to contact our pilots and unless we receive information from them, we cannot confirm any report".
Fifty six-year-old Khandu, who had served in the intelligence wing of the Indian Army, was sworn on April 9, 2007 as the fifth Chief Minister of the state, replacing Gegong Apang.
Earlier, Union Home Secretary GK Pillai had said that search parties left from Itanagar by road to the probable site near Sela Pass. The Defence Ministry, Army and the Air Force have all been alerted.
"Unfortunately because of very bad weather the flights have not been able to take off for the search in Tawang area. But as soon as weather clears, the helicopters will take off", Pillai said.
This is the third helicopter to get into trouble in the Northeast in the last fortnight.
On April 19, a Pawan Hans helicopter crashed in the mountains of Tawang, bordering Tibet, killing all 17 people on board. The helicopter crashed not far away from the helipad and the DGCA had found that proper fire-fighting facilities could have saved lives.
In another incident, an Army helicopter crashed near Gangtok killing four occupants on board.