GUWAHATI: The Indian Army’s elite Para Commandos and mountaineers will launch an operation to search for the occupants of the ill-fated Pawan Hans helicopter that crashed in Tirap district of Arunachal Pradesh with three persons, including an IAS officer, on board.
“A team of the Para Commandos and mountaineers will leave for the crash site from Khonsa on Wednesday. As it crashed inside a gorge between two mountains, helicopter landing is not possible there,” an Army Colonel told Express.
The IAF, Army, CRPF and police personnel are involved in the search and rescue operations. Meanwhile, Chanchal Yadav, Deputy Commissioner of neighbouring Changlang district, denied reports about the recovery of the body parts of the occupants. “We haven’t recovered the body of any person so far. But we have spotted the main parts of the helicopter from a height,” she added. The Dauphin VT-PHK helicopter was reported missing on August 4 while flying from Khonsa to Chabua in Assam’s Dibrugarh district. The three occupants were Tirap Deputy Commissioner Kamlesh Joshi, pilot M S Brar and co-pilot Rajiv Hoskte.
The Pawan Hans helicopters are dubbed “flying coffins”. This was the third crash involving a Pawan Hans helicopter in Arunachal Pradesh in the last five years.