By IANS,
Shillong: Due to bad weather conditions, the Indian Air Force (IAF) Saturday called off search operations to locate the missing helicopter which carried Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu and four others, n official said Saturday.
“We have suspended our rescue and search operations for the day due to bad weather but we will resume it tomorrow (Sunday) again,” IAF spokesman Ranjeeb Sahoo told IANS here.
Two IAF Cheetah helicopters were pressed into service to search and locate the missing Pawan Hans helicopter and its five occupants, including two pilots.
Apart from Khandu, the people on board included Captain J.S. Babbar and Captain K.S. Malick, Khandu’s security officer Yeshi Choddak and Yeshi Lamu, sister of Tawang legislator Tsewang Dhondup.
Sahoo said the Pawan Hans AS350 B-3 helicopter which took off from Tawang at 9.50 a.m. Saturday went missing after crossing the Sela Pass in Tawang district in western Arunachal, close to the Chinese border.
Arunachal Pradesh has witnessed a large number of air crashes which include the April 19 accident where 17 people were killed when a helicopter burst into flames while trying to land at Tawang.
On November 19, 2010, eleven IAF personnel and an army lieutenant colonel were killed when an IAF Mi17 helicopter crashed near the China frontier a minute after take-off.
In 2009, an IAF AN-32 aircraft crashed at Mechuka, killing all personnel on board.
Minister of State for Defence N.V.N. Somu, 5 Mountain Division commander Major Gen. Ramesh Nagpal and two others died when their Cheetah helicopter hit a 1,300 ft peak 40 km from Tawang on November 1997.
In May 2001, state Education Minister Dera Natung and five others were killed when their Pawan Hans craft crashed near Tawang because of poor visibility.