ITANAGAR, Aug 4 - A helicopter of Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited (PHHL) with three persons, including an IAS officer, on board today went missing after taking off from Khonsa, in Arunachal Pradesh for Mohanbari in Dibrugarh. The eight-seater Pawan Hans chopper with the lone passenger being Tirap Deputy Commissioner Kamlesh Joshi besides the pilot and his co-pilot, reportedly went missing after taking off from Khonsa around 10.30 am.
The chopper carrying the IAS officer, was on its way to Mohanbari via Longding and Changlang when it went missing. When contacted, a top official in the State Civil Aviation Department told this correspondent that the helicopter still remained traceless. An aerial search operation, for the missing chopper has already been launched and the report, in this regard, forwarded to the Chief Secretary�s office, informed the official without divulging more details.
Another source at the Tirap district headquarters Khonsa close to the IAS officer, said that the DC was on his way to Mohanbari from where he was about to board a flight for New Delhi to attend to a call from the Union Home Ministry.
Reports said that the Air Traffic Control lost contact with the helicopter � a twin-engine Dauphin N3 � around 11 am near a place called Deomali in Tirap district. �We are trying to contact the pilot, but as of now no link has been established with the missing helicopter,� sources in the helicopter company said.
