Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's chopper has been reportedly traced near Kurnool
India’s biggest-ever air, land and satellite search operation failed to locate the Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, and others who went missing along with their helicopter on Wednesday in the dense Nallamala forests. The unprecedented effort included ultra-sophisticated remote sensing aircraft of Isro and the IAF, helicopters, Army personnel, 5,000 CRPF men and Andhra and Karnataka police forces.
The Chief Minister had taken off from the Begumpet airport at 8.35 am to go to Chittoor to launch his Rachabanda programme, to talk to drought-affected farmers and quell their fears.
Dr Reddy’s helicopter pilot, Group Captain Bhatia, an Indian Air Force pilot on deputation with the government, last contacted the Air Traffic Control at Chennai at 9.02 am and did not indicate any emergency. Gp Cpt Bhatia, a veteran of the north-east, did not put out any emergency or distress call.
The ATC reported to the state government that contact had been lost with the helicopter at 9.36 am, when the pilot did not make his net contact. At that time, the helicopter was over the dense Nallamala jungles near the Srisailam dam, about 60 nautical miles from Hyderabad. It was carrying fuel for three hours.
The government deployed its own helicopter for the search and as the hours, and anxiety, grew, the Indian Air Force stepped in. By noon, the Union home ministry had alerted the defence ministry and seven IAF helicopters were deployed to the region. Two of the copters from the Hakimpet withdrew due to inclement weather, but the copters deployed from Bengaluru kept up the search till sunset.
“There is no good news yet. We are keeping our fingers crossed. Our prayers are with Rajasekhar Reddy and his family,” Mr Chidambaram told reporters, even as the the home ministry ordered extensive search operations by central paramilitary forces and rushed in 5,000 CRPF men. Police forces from Guntur, Prakasam, Mahbubnagar and Kurnool districts which border the area. The elite anti-naxal Greyhound force, the anti-naxal central COBRA force are also scouring the Nallamalla forests, sources said.
The Union home ministry citing locals reported the last sighting of the helicopter at Iskala village in Pamulapadu block and Atmakur in Kurnool district. Another sighting reported by the state government was between Atmakur and Bandi Atmakar close to Rollapenta in Kurnool district between 9.15 am and 9.30 am.
The IAF later launched a Sukhoi Su-31MKI fighter aircraft equipped with the advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to track down the helicopter. The aircraft returned to Bareily where its data is being analysed,
The Indian Army launched about 300 hundred of its troops including two columns of specialised Ghatak forces into the Nallamalla forests in Andhra Pradesh to search for the helicopter.
Sources said the Army troops were equipped with hand-held thermal imagers and night-vision goggles to search on Wednesday night for any signs of the helicopter. The Indian Space Research Organisation flew two specially-equipped B-200 Beachcraft over the Nallamalla forests. The aircraft flew back to the National Remote Sensing Agency, Hyderabad, with 41 images, each covering 8 sq km. Of the 41 images, 21 were of no use, and no data could be picked up from the others.
The missing copter is equipped with a Emergency Location Transmitter (ELT) which is activated if the helicopter makes a hard landing on the ground. The ELT signals can be tracked by the ISRO but it remains to be seen whether any ELT signals are transmitted. The Centre also deployed a thermal imaging aircraft that can pick out metal on the ground. This aircraft can be refuelled mid-air, meaning that it could operate for a long stretch of time.
The minister of state for defence, Mr M.M. Pallam Raju, said an additional Sukhoi fighter aircraft had been kept in readiness at Mumbai. The National Security Adviser, Mr M.K. Narayanan said that while there is no information so far of any naxalite involvement in the incident.
From dawn on Thursday morning, four IAF choppers will again resume the search operations. The IAF also despatched a Dornier and Avro aircraft to search for the missing chopper.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's chopper has been reportedly traced near Kurnool. An Air Force spokesperson has
said the chopper has been located on top of a hill at a distance of 40 nautical miles east of Kurnool.
“As of now, we have located the helicopter. We are not sure whether it has crashed or not,” said Air Commodore Sagar Bharati of the Bangalore Air Command.
He also said the Air Force was attempting to drop para commandos on the spot through ropes to look for survivors.
The signal code of the helicopter is 15471479.
K V P Ramachandra Rao, Rajya Sabha member and a close aide of the Andhra Pradesh chief minister, also confirmed the chopper has been found.
Union home secretary GK Pillai said in Delhi that it seems the helicopter has crash landed but there is no confirmation.
The helicopter carrying YSR Reddy, two of his staff and two pilots went missing in pouring rain Wednesday morning over the Naxal and tiger-infested Nalamalla forests.
The CM left Hyderabad on a six-seater Bell chopper at 8.35am for Chittoor accompanied by his secretary and chief security officer. After 9.27am, radio contact was lost with the helicopter.
Soon after the chopper lost contact, multiple agencies of the state launched a massive hunt for possible wreckage in the desolate terrain. By evening, it expanded into the country's biggest-ever search operation with satellites in the sky joining remote sensing aircraft, fighter jets, unmanned aerial vehicles, troops on the ground and even barefoot deer-hunting tribals with bows and arrows.
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