Utter confusion prevails over the missing helicopter of Arunachal CM Khandu Dorjee

New Delhi: Utter confusion prevailed over the missing helicopter of Arunachal Chief Minister Khandu Dorjee, with neither the Centre nor State in control of the search operations. A helicopter carrying Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu and four others went missing on Saturday shortly after take off from Tawang.
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.
On Saturday, the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh, Gen (retd) J J Singh in an impromptu press conference called without any consultation with Centre, said that Chief Minister Khandu had landed safely in a place called Daporijo in Upper Subansiri district. After Singh's statement, search operations to find the missing helicopter were called off.
But, immediately after the press conference, when the Home Ministry enquired from J J Singh as to how did he reach this conclusion (of the CM's helicopter landing safely), the latter said that he got the information from a state minister who in turn is said to have received the information form the Tawang MLA.
There are two routes from Tawang to Itanagar. While one route is through Sela Pass, the other one is via Tawang Chu -Guwahati to Itanagar.
Initial reports from the Army had said that the missing helicopter had passed over the Sela Pass, but later, a post of 5th mountain division denied having seen any helicopter passing over the Sela Pass.
01/05/11 Shishir Gupta/Indian Express

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Indian Aviation- In General May 2011, Safety May 2010