A helicopter carrying Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu and four others went missing on Saturday shortly after take off from Tawang and apprehensions grew about their fate with search operations yielding no results. Khandu,accompanied by the sister of Tawang MLA,security officer,had taken off from Tawang at 9:56 am and was to land at Itanagar at 11:30 am by a Pawan Hans helicopter Eurocopter B3 craft. Tawang is about 200 kms from Itanagar. The chopper was last in communication with the base when it was overflying Sela Pass,20 minutes after taking off from Tawang,and all communications were lost after that. There was confusion in the afternoon with claims made by Governor Gen (retd) J J Singh first and then by the Chief Minister's Office and Defence spokesperson that the Chief Minister 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 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. 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 tomorrow 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. "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".
