The Indian Air Force on Sunday resumed search operations to locate the missing helicopter carrying Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu as Indian and Bhutanese soldiers fanned out in the mountainous terrain to track down the chopper that went off the radar Saturday morning.
"We have launched an operation by deploying troops and locals to track the Indian helicopter in our territory," S. Duba, deputy commissioner of Trashiyangtse district in Bhutan that adjoins Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh said.
"Two MI-17 and two Cheetah helicopters have been pressed into service to locate the wreckage of the missing helicopter," Ranjeeb Sahoo, IAF spokesman at the Eastern Air Command headquarters in Shillong said.
The aerial rescue and search operations resumed at 6 a.m. on Sunday. The IAF had suspended its aerial operations due to inclement weather Saturday evening.
"The rescue teams are also likely to cover Bhutan air space bordering Arunachal to trace the missing chopper," Sahoo said.
The Indian government is in constant touch with Bhutan to find out about the missing chopper.
"There is no news yet about the helicopter and we all are desperately waiting for some concrete news," Takam Sanjay, MP from Arunachal, said.
The Pawan Hans AS350 B-3 helicopter carrying the chief minister and four others went missing after it took off from Tawang at 9.50 a.m. on Saturday. The last radio contact with the ground was at 10.15 am. as it flew over the Sela Pass along the Chinese border perched at an altitude of 13,700 feet.
"We have not been able to contact our pilots," a Pawan Hans official said in Guwahati.
Apart from Khandu, the people 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 legislator Tsewang Dhondup.
Meanwhile, two central ministers, Mukul Wasnik and V. Narayanasamy, arrived in Guwahati Sunday morning. They will leave for Itanagar by a special chopper to oversee the search operations under express orders from the prime minister.
The helicopter carrying Khandu, an AS350 B-3, is a single-engine chopper. In case of an engine failure, there are very slim chances of the helicopter making a safe landing.
The incident comes just days after another Pawan Hans helicopter crashed in Tawang April 19, killing 17 people and injuring six.
The Pawan Hans Helicopter Services Limited (PHHL) has been operating five helicopters across Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura and daily Guwahati-Tawang services for the past nine years. It is one of the major lifelines of the landlocked Arunachal Pradesh.
