By IANS
Raipur : Chhattisgarh has sought the help of the union government to locate a chopper, which has been missing since Saturday en route to Raipur from Bhopal, official sources said.
“We sent a formal request Monday to the central government for help. We also expect a stepped up search drive by Indian Air Force helicopters Tuesday to achieve an early breakthrough,” a government official told IANS.
He rejected reports by a section of the media that the missing chopper was found late Monday in a hilly area of Kawardha district in Chhattisgarh.
The EC-135 helicopter called Maina, which had gone to Madhya Pradesh’s capital city Bhopal for some mandatory technical checks, lost contact with the air traffic controller half an hour after taking off from Bhopal for Raipur at 12.30 p.m. July 14.
The helicopter piloted by Captain A. S. Sidhu and Captain Vikram Savekar was carrying a technician Manish Badania and an engineer Amitabh Soni.