The incident comes within 12 days of another Pawan Hans chopper crash in Tawang, killing 17 of the 23 persons on board.
The AS350 B-3 chopper had taken off from Tawang at 9.45 am with five on board, including the 56-year-old Chief Minister and a female relative, his personal security officer Y Chhodak, the pilot and the co-pilot. It was supposed to reach Itanagar around 11.30 am, and an alert was sounded around 12 noon when there were still no signs of the chopper.
“We have no contact or information about the helicopter,” Tsering Gyurme, principal advisor to Khandu, told The Indian Express. A Pawan Hans official in Guwahati too confirmed that there was no information about the chopper.
Sources in the Army said posts in the Sela Pass area, which is at an elevation of over 14,000 feet, had reported that no helicopter had passed the area today. The weather around Sela Pass was unfavourable for flying on Saturday, and even two Mi-17 Army choppers having better manoeuvring power, with pilots more knowledgable of the terrain, were not able to fly over the area when asked to go out on search of the Chief Minister.
At one point of time, there were reports that the helicopter had landed somewhere in east Bhutan. Governor Gen (Retd) J J Singh told the media in Itanagar that the chopper had landed in Tashigaon inside Bhutan and that the Chief Minister was safe. At 3.30 pm, the state government even alerted the media that a press release would be issued immediately after Khandu was flown back to Guwahati.
