Wreckage of missing chopper found, search on for occupants

Itanagar, Aug 10: Six days after a Pawan Hans chopper went missing, its wreckage was found this morning between Thinsa and Sanglian villages in Tirap district of Arunachal Pradesh, but the fate of the three occupants, including a Deputy Commissioner, is not known. [Debris of missing chopper found in Arunachal's Tirap district]

DGP S Nitithyanandam told PTI that the ground search operation had been launched in nearby areas to locate the three occupants.

The Dauphin VT PHK helicopter, piloted by captain M S Bra and captain Rajiv Hoskte, had taken off from Naharlagun helipad around 8.30 AM and landed at Khonsa en-route Mohanbari It took off at 10.15 AM with Tirap DC Dr Kamalesh Kumar Joshi for Londing, but had gone missing after a few minutes.

Massive search operations for the missing chopper had been carried on by Tirap and Changlang district administration and security forces under the command of Chnaglang Deputy Commissioner Chanchal Yadav after the chopper had gone missing.

This is the fith major accident involving Pawan Hans chopper since 2010.

The chief minister has called a meeting with the CS, DGP and civil aviation secretary after the report of finding the wreckage was received.

PTI