Arunachal CM Dorjee Khandu’s chopper debris sighted,relative identifies body; others charred

Confirming this,B K Handique,Union Minister for Development of Northeast,said at Itanagar that while a search party headed by a local panchayat leader called Thupten was the first to have sighted the wreckage and the bodies,a family member later reached the spot – about two hours by foot – to identify the chief minister’s body.

The spot where the wreckage of the Pawan Hans chopper was found on Wednesday morning is a remote location about 10 kilometres from Jang,which is 30 kilometres south-east of Tawang,accessible only after a two-hour footmarch from the Jang waterfalls. It is northeast of the 14,000-feet Sela range,and the crash site is said to be at an elevation of about 11,000 feet.

The single-engine,five-seater Eurocopter-made Pawan Hans chopper had lost contact with ground control 20 minutes after it took off from Tawang at 9:50 am on April 30 for Itanagar. The other four people on board apart from the chief minister were Captain J S Babbar and Captain K S Malick,Khandu’s security officer Yeshi Choddak and Yeshi Lamu,a sister of Tawang legislator Tsewang Dhondup.

“The body of Khandu has been identified by the local panchayat leader and a family member,while the other four have been charred beyond recognition. An official confirmation can be made only when the bodies are brought out and the necessary formalities are completed,” Handique said.

While the chopper went missing on Saturday morning,a radar scanning by two Sukhoi aircrafts of the IAF and satellite images by an ISRO satellite could not pinpointed any wreckage. Aerial search operations by IAF choppers based at Tawang,Tezpur and Guwahati on the other hand were seriously hampered with the weather turning bad since Sunday morning.

The spot where the wreckage was found today is said to be about 10 to 12 kilometres northeast of the route that the chopper had followed from Tawang to Itanagar. The area is characterised by rugged topography,high mountain ridges with steep slopes and deep incised valleys carved by the Tawang-Chu river.

Meanwhile in Delhi,Union Home Minister P Chidambaram indicated earlier in the day that Khandu and the others may not have survived the crash.

“From whatever I can piece together the information from the information given by the villagers and assuming it to be true,I am afraid the news is grim and sad,” P Chidambaram said.

Giving details,he said some villagers had reportedly reached the site of the crash of a helicopter and communicated to the control room in Itanagar that they had identified two bodies while three were charred beyond recognition.

“These are interrupted communications by villagers who have reached the site. But no official of the government,Army or police has been able to reach there,” he said.

“It may take several hours for any of these officials to reach the spot because it is about five kilometres from Kyela,” Chidambaram said.

He said a Cheetah helicopter,which flew over the site,has been able to locate the debris of a crashed helicopter and some bodies lying there.

“We are trying to land another Cheetah from Lubothang,” the Home Minister said,adding a team of the government to reach the accident site which is about 5 kms from Kyela.

Handique said that only after the divisional commissioner takes charge of the body and the formalities are completed,they could officially confirm news about Dorjee.

Handique said that the body would be sent to Khandu’s home village in Tawang,”but the final rites will be observed simultaneously at Tawang and Itanagar with state honours.”

If transporting the body by chopper was delayed,it would be sent by road from Tawang,around 500 km from here,he added.

Khandu’s family members had rushed to Tawang immediately after the chopper went missing.