Itanagar, Aug. 4: A Pawan Hans helicopter with four persons on board, including Tirap deputy commissioner Kamlesh Joshi, went missing this morning while on its way to Longding from Khonsa in Arunachal Pradesh.
An official said Joshi, the pilot, co-pilot and possibly another person were headed to Longding in eastern Arunachal Pradesh in a twin-engine Dauphin N3 helicopter operated by Pawan Hans. They left the Tirap district headquarters of Khonsa at 10.15am.
"The Pawan Hans Dauphin passenger chopper took off from Khonsa (Tirap district) for Longding at 10.15am on a routine passenger sortie and was to return to Mohanbari airport in Dibrugarh when it lost contact," the Arunachal Pradesh chief minister's office said in a statement this evening.
The statement said chief minister Nabam Tuki convened an emergency meeting with home minister Tanga Byaling, civil aviation minister Thangwang Wangham, chief secretary Ramesh Negi, director-general of police S. Nithyanandam and other officials to discuss the incident. Legislators of the three districts were also present at the meeting.
Negi also informed Union home secretary L.C. Goyal about the incident.
"The chief minister is personally monitoring the search operation. The district administration, police, panchayat leaders and local residents of the nearby villages have also been asked to extend support to the search operation. The chief minister has also sought help of the Centre, army, air force and paramilitary forces are continuing search and rescue operations in the area," Bamang Tago, political secretary to Tuki, told The Telegraph.
An official statement from the state civil aviation department said the chopper had contacted Chabua air traffic control (ATC) near Dibrugarh five minutes after taking off.
A Pawan Hans source told The Telegraph that the last contact with the ATC was around 10.38am. "We have three choppers in Itanagar and sent one to look for it around noon but because of inclement weather our efforts did not yield any result. The status as of now (of the chopper) is missing," he said.
The normal flying time between Khonsa and Longding is 15 minutes. Khonsa is more than 300km from Itanagar by road.
A search team of army, paramilitary forces, CRPF, state police, government officials and civilians has been pressed into action. Both NSCN (I-M) and NSCN (K) are active in Tirap, Changlang and Longding districts.
While there has not been any official confirmation, reports indicated the chopper might have crashed at Kolagaon near Deomali in Tirap. However, district information officer Denhang Bosai, who is a part of the search team, said no wreckage has been found yet. He said the search operation would resume tomorrow.
Joshi had joined as deputy commissioner of the insurgency-hit Tirap district on June 24, 2013, after serving as additional deputy commissioner of Namsai in Lohit district. This is his first posting as deputy commissioner. He had earlier served in Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. An order had already been issued transferring Joshi to New Delhi and he was set to join after Independence Day.
A source in Tirap said the chopper had to land after initially taking off from Khonsa for technical repairs. It left for Mohanbari airport in Assam's Dibrugarh from Naharlagun helipad carrying two passengers.
The company's record in the state has been marred by tragedies since it began helicopter operations more than two decades ago.
On May 2001, then education minister Dera Natung and five others were killed when their chopper crashed near Tawang because of poor visibility.
On 19 April 2011, the engine of a Pawan Hans chopper caught fire while landing at Tawang, killing 16 people.
Just 11 days later, on April 30, then chief minister Dorjee Khandu died along with four others after their helicopter crashed on the mountains of Tawang. Helicopter services were suspended after Khandu's death but resumed in January 2013.
Additional reporting by Umanand Jaiswal in Guwahati
