Chhattisgarh: Missing chopper yet to be traced

Raipur, July 15: A Chhattisgarh government helicopter ''Maina'', which went missing with four people on board after take off from Bhopal yesterday afternoon, is yet to be traced, senior aviation officials said.

State Aviation Director Anil Tuteja told the sources that all police stations in the air route from Bhopal to Raipur have been alerted and they were carrying out search operations in their respective areas.

'' We are making arrangements to press helicopters, including of the Army, in the search operations'', he said adding that search have been intensified in Balaghat and Mandla areas after people reported that they saw a helicopter flying in the area.

Mr Tuteja said pilots captain A S Siddu, Mr Vikram Savekar and engineers Mr Manish Dabolia and Mr Amitabh Soni were on board of the chopper, which took off from Bhopal at around 1150 hours yesterday and lost contact with Air Traffic Control (ATC) within half an hour.

The six seater helicopter, manufactured by the internationally renowned company Eurocopter, was sent to Bhopal for weighing two days ago and was on its way back to raipur after a technical check up that is required in every five years as per the aviation norms.

Initially, the aviation officials had thought that the chopper might have landed somewhere due to bad weather chopper is fitted with state-of-the-art emergency locater beacon, which gets activated and starts emitting signals in the event of a crash landing.

Once the equipment gets activated, it not only sends a signal to a centre based in Hyderabad, but also remains active for 72 hours through which the chopper could be located from anywhere within a radius of 100 km. As no such signal has been received so far from this equipment, it had appeared that the helicopter had landed somewhere safely.

This twin engined chopper, considered very safe for flying, was purchased after formation of Chhattisgarh in November 2000. It is being used by VIPs, including governor and chief ministers.

Besides, it is in service for air-lifting forces and evacuating the injured to hospital from the violence-prone naxalite areas of Chhattisgarh.

UNI