Guwahati: An Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopter engaged in evacuating flood-hit people in Papum Pare district of Arunachal Pradesh went missing on Tuesday afternoon with three crew members and a policeman on board.
The Advanced Light Helicopter was evacuating people in several sorties since 11 A.M. and had already evacuated as many as 50 people including several women and children from Sagalee to Itanagar, before it went missing around 4 PM on Tuesday, a Defence source informed.
Before it went missing, the chopper with three crew members on board had taken off from Sagalee at around 3:30 PM on Tuesday on its way to Itanagar, but lost contact with ground about 20 minutes later.
An official in Itanagar informed that the helicopter had made five sorties evacuating flood-hit people since 10:30 AM on Tuesday , and had returned for the sixth trip.
The official informed that for reasons best known to them, the crews of the chopper did not take the last batch of nine stranded civilians and instead and took off at around 3:30 with just one policeman who was deployed to help the crew, only to go missing since then.
Earlier, Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu tweeted around 3 P.M that “Successfully evacuated 169 stranded people that include women, children from flood affected areas of Sagalee and Dambuk through IAF. “
Sagalee in Papum Pare district is located to the north of the state capital Itanagar while Dambuk in Lower Dibang Valley is about 350 km east of the state capital.
An official source in Itanagar informed that the distance by road between Itanagar and Sagalee was about 90 km, the flight time taken by a helicopter was just about 15 to 20 minutes.
Search operations for locating the missing IAF chopper could not be launched because of inclement weather. Operations would however be launched early Wednesday morning, an official said.
Meanwhile, a BSF chopper with union minister Kiren Rijiju on board had to make an emergency landing near Itanagar on Tuesday afternoon due to bad weather while it was on its way from Guwahati to Ziro in Lower Subansiri district in Arunachal Pradesh . The Mi-17 helicopter with Rijiju and seven other passengers and crew members on board landed in an open field near Itanagar, because of heavy rains and thick fog.