Andhra help sought to trace missing helicopter

Raipur, Aug 4 (UNI) The Chhattisgarh government today sought the assistance of the Andhra Pradesh government in tracing a helicopter hired by the former as it went missing on its way from Hyderabad to Raipur.

The helicopter with two pilots and an engineer on board left Hyderabad around 1500 yesterday and search for it began as it did not arrive at Jagdalpur for refuelling around 1630 hours.

Since bad weather due to heavy rains was reported in the forested areas on Chhattisgarh-Andhra Pradesh border, different teams of police fanned out to the forests in search of the aircraft, hired by the state government from Raina Aviation company, according to Aviation department Director Anil Tuteja.

Mr Tuteja said it would take some time to search the entire forested route.

Bastar range IG A N Upadhyaya said search for the missing aircraft was on in the naxal-infested areas.

In July last year, an helicopter of Chhattisgarh government flying back to Raipur from Bhopal crashed due to bad weather killing four people in the forest area in Madhya Pradesh's Balaghat district close on the state border.

After several days of aerial search, a pet dog of a farmer from Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon district helped in tracing the damaged aircraft and charred bodies of the victims, that included pilot and two engineers.

UNI Team-SP 1638