By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma on Thursday experienced a harrowing time when the chopper carrying him could not land at Haripur near Selsella in West Garo Hills as the pilots could not locate the place.
The Congress party hired the private chopper since there is restriction on the use of Pawan Hans chopper run by the Transport department.
After landing safely at Chonglapara, Purakasia in West Garo Hills and Chokpot in South Garo Hills and competing two public meetings there, the chopper headed to Haripur, the third destination of the Chief Minister.
The chopper took off with the Chief Minister from the helipad at IIM, Shillong.
According to sources, two pilots could not locate the landing place and the chopper was hovering over the area at around 4.pm.
The Chief Minister was in the air for some hours flying in different directions as the pilots tried to locate the area to land unsuccessfully.
After being unable to locate the venue of the meeting, pilots decided to fly to Guwahati.
The pilots claimed that the coordinates (longitude and latitude of the place) which was sent by the police was wrong.
However, after police verified and carried out site inspection at Haripur village, it was confirmed that the coordinates given by the police were correct contrary to the claim of the pilots.
The police had sent the co ordinates via SMS to the Congress functionaries and they in turn forwarded the message to the pilots.
A police official said that explanation would be sought from the pilots for giving the excuse that the coordinates were wrong.
Confirming the incident, DGP Kulbir Krishan said that the matter had been taken up at the “highest level” for a probe.
“In future, an officer of the rank of an additional director general of police (ADG) would coordinate the Chief Minister’s travel plans,” he said.
Stating that the chopper instead of going to South Garo Hills landed in North Garo Hills, Dr Sangma said “I told the pilots that we were going to a wrong place”.
The Chief Minister wondered as to what went wrong with the pilots.
“The visibility was also a factor,” Dr Sangma said.
Stating that he was in Guwahati with only two security personnel, the Chief Minister said it was up to the authorities to ascertain what actually went wrong.
Sources, meanwhile, said Dr Sangma has left for Tura in a private vehicle escorted by Assam Police personnel.
