Debris of missing chopper found in Arunachal's Tirap district

Arunachal Pradesh, Aug 10: The wreckage of Pawan Hans helicopter, which went missing after taking off on August 4, has been found in Arunachal Pradesh's Tirap district.

"The Air Force has confirmed that the wreckage of the missing helicopter has been found 12 km south of Khonsa, the headquarters of Tirap district," Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju told PTI here.

This is the 5th accident involving Pawan Hans choppers since 2010. The fate of the three crew members are not known yet.

Group Captain Amit Mahajan, Public Relations Officer, Ministry of Defence (Shillong) said that the chopper was declared ‘missing' by the IAF Radar Unit in the area.

He said the wreckage was spotted by the helicopters from Air Force Station Mohanbari.

"The wreckage was finally spotted in the thick foliage south of Khonsa at around 5.20 am on Monday. This was made possible due to untiring efforts of the various units of Headquarters Eastern Air Command, IAF," he added.

Soon after the chopper went missing, the IAF swung into action by activating multiple assets to track it.
"The the area is mountainous and thickly wooded.

It was a difficult operation with hospital weather," an official, who was part of the search and rescue mission, said.

The IAF pressed into service a Su-30 MKI and C-130 J aircraft. An IL-78 aircraft along with surveillance radars provided multiple inputs to narrow down to the likely location of the helicopter.

However, the fate of the three occupants, including a young IAS officer Kamalesh Joshi, of the chopper is yet to be known.

The massive search operation was launched to locate the chopper which went missing after taking off from Khonsa in Arunachal Pradesh's Tirap district on August 4.

PTI

With inputs from Dr Anantha Krishnan M