Tech fails, villagers score

Old-fashioned human endeavour scored over satellites and radars in locating the wreckage of Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Dorjee Khandu’s chopper on Wednesday. On Wednesday, Luguthang village panchayat leader Thupten Tsering and some 40 others beat Isro’s satellite imagery and IAF Sukhoi-30s infra-red aerial mapping to locate the wreckage at 16,000ft. Luguthang wasn’t one of the eight spots, six in India and two in Bhutan, that Isro and IAF zeroed in on as possible sites.
Security forces spent the entire day on Tuesday trying to trek to two satellite-guided spots, one (Nagarjiji) in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh and the other north of Thongrong in Bhutan. They found nothing there.
Technical experts and IAF officers attributed the ‘off-target’ infra-red readings to the inclement weather that haunted the hunt. “Cloudy conditions added to the delay in locating the chopper,” a defence spokesperson said.
Not all are convinced with this answer. “Technology and forces can fail for a day or two, but not for five days at a stretch,” said Takam Tatung, president of the All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union.
04/05/11 Rahul Karmakar/Hindustan Times

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General May 2011, Safety May 2011