Arunachal CM Dorjee Khandu Still Missing
posted on May 3, 2011 @ 11:48AM
It's more than 72 hrs. and still the helicopter in which Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu and four others were travelling hasn't been found. Search operations are still going on for the missing chopper. Yesterday search teams reached the area where Arunachal chief minister Dorjee Khandu's chopper is suspected to have gone missing along the Indo-Bhutan border. Two Mi-17 choppers took off from Tawang at around 6:05 on Tuesday morning to search around the Sela Pass, the third highest pass in the world but bad weather hampered the search operations.
The helicopter carrying Khandu, his security officer Yeshi Choddak, Yeshi Lhamu, sister of Tawang MLA Tsewang Dhondup and pilots Captain J S Babbar and Captain T S Mamik went missing 20 minutes after they took off from Tawang to Itanagar on Saturday morning. As the Pawan Hans helicopter remained untraced triggering concerns over the fate of the passengers, Sources in New Delhi said an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) satellite has taken pictures of several metallic objects spread over a 66 sq km area in West Kameng district. With this the search operations will be limited to 66 sq. kms area, which the ISRO pictures show. Eastern Air Command Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Air Marshal K K Nohwar said in Shillong that infrared images taken by two Sukhoi-30 planes detected 'an aircraft-like something' in an area in Bhutan on which the aerial search was focussing.