A helicopter carrying Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu and four others, including two crew members, from Tawang has gone missing immediately after take-off Saturday morning.
Khandu, accompanied by two of his personal aides, had taken off from Tawang at 0956 hours IST (Indian Standard Time) and was to land at Itanagar at 1130 hours IST. It was last sighted at Sela Pass, 20 minutes after taking off from Tawang, pti reported quoting defence sources in Shillong as saying.
The air force has pressed into service two helicopters in search operations to locate the missing chopper. The 56-year-old Khandu, who had served in the intelligence wing of the Indian Army, was sworn on April 9, 2007 as the fifth chief minister of the state, replacing Gegong Apang.
This is the third helicopter to get into trouble in the Northeast in the last fortnight. On April 19, a Pawan Hans helicopter crashed in the mountains of Tawang, bordering Tibet, killing all 17 people on board.
In the other incident, an army helicopter crashed near Gangtok killing four people on board.
