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Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh), May 2 (ANI): Braving inclement weather, security forces early Monday morning resumed a massive search operation along the Indo-Bhutan border in search of a missing helicopter carrying Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu and four other people.

“Hard weather condition are creating obstacles in aerial search operation but around 4000 rescuers including personnel from Army, Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and state police are on the task,” state government spokesman Jarbom Gamlin said.

A 30-member team comprising volunteers from the area from where the chopper went missing, also began a search this morning in the eastern part of Bhutan, he said.

The ITBP also pressed six columns consisting 150 personnel for ground search operation, police said.

The IAF had to suspend the search operation yesterday due to bad weather conditions.

An Air force chopper had taken off from Tawang for the search mission on Sunday. It did two sorties but could not trace the chopper. Due to inclement weather and rainfall in the valley, the chopper stationed at Guwahati and Tezpur could not be airborne.

Two Cheetah helicopters also tried to search the areas around Sella Pass yesterday but came back in the evening without any success.

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Delhi was also contacted and requested to provide suitable directions to NDRF battalion at Guwahati to help state police in its search and rescue operation in West Kameng District.

Accordingly one team of NDRF comprising 38 personnel with search and rescue equipment had already proceeded to Bomdila by road yesterday for assisting local police for further search and rescue operations.

The missing Pawan Hans AS350 B-3 helicopter that took off from Tawang at 9.50 a.m. on Saturday lost communication with the ground after it flew past the Sela Pass along the Chinese border about 20 to 25 minutes later. The helicopter was scheduled to land in Itanagar at 11.30 a.m. on Saturday.

On Saturday, several media reports quoted Arunachal Pradesh Governor General (retired) J J Singh and Chief Secretary Bam as saying that the helicopter had landed safely somewhere in eastern Bhutan adjoining Tawang district and that the same helicopter was flying back to Guwahati with the chief minister on board.

Bhutan, however, later denied that any Indian helicopter had landed in its territory, but said a search operation was launched following a request from New Delhi.

Apart from Khandu, the people on board included crew members Captain J S Babbar and Captain K S Malick, Khandu’s security officer Yeshi Choddak and Yeshi Lamu, sister of Tawang legislator Tsewang Dhondup.

The missing helicopter, AS350 B-3, is a single-engine chopper. In case of an engine failure, there are very slim chances of the helicopter making a safe landing. (ANI)