Arunachal chief minister's family identifies @crash site

Lily

B.R
Staff member
Itanagar: Family members yesterday reached the site of the helicopter crash and identified the body of Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu but the four other bodies were mutilated and burnt beyond recognition, officials said.

Police said a small group of the chief minister's family, security personnel and local officials reached the site after an arduous four-hour trek near Lobotang, 30km north of the 13,700 feet Sela Pass, in Tawang district. The wreckage had been sighted around 10am by a group of civilians led by a Village Defence Party (VDP).

"Some family members were able to identify the chief minister's mutilated body. According to information, the four other bodies were badly mutilated and burnt almost beyond recognition," the official said. Efforts are now on to get back the five bodies to the nearest accessible point but this could take close to seven hours.

"It [will] be an uphill climb, and the terrain is rough and slippery," Kiren Rijiju, adviser to the chief minister, said.

The helicopter ferrying Khandu, which crashed last Saturday, was new and registered in July last year, but it had just one engine and hence was deemed unfit for such terrain, aviation experts said.

As per the new norms of civil aviation requirements issued on June 1 last year, any single-engine helicopter can be deployed only on those routes, or areas, that permit the execution of a forced landing, a top official at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said.

"The new norms also clearly say single engine machines shall not be operated at night or in adverse meteorological conditions, and an exception is only given when visibility is much, much better than normal," the official said.

The official said the helicopter — AS 350 B3 of Eurocopter, which was nicknamed ‘Ecureuil' (French for squirrel) — had a single Turbomeca engine, bore serial number 4991, was registered as VT-PHT on July 7, 2010, and commissioned in December last year.

"Only an inquiry will determine the facts and why a single-engine helicopter was used," Hage Khoda, an officer of the Indian Administrative Service who also oversees the civil aviation sector for Arunachal Pradesh, said.

As news of the sighting of the wreckage spread, a pall of gloom descended in the mountainous state.

"This is heart-breaking. We are sad as the chief minister was a visionary and honest politician. His death has shaken us," said Bamang Tago, a civil rights campaigner.

In the first official condolence of Khandu's death in the helicopter crash, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna yesterday said he was "a great son of India", dedicated to improving the quality of life of people in his state.

"I am deeply pained to receive confirmation of the tragic and untimely demise of a great son of India and the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh Dorjee Khandu," Krishna said in a statement.

"He was dedicated to the cause of improving the quality of lives of the people of Arunachal Pradesh. In his death, the state and country have lost a visionary administrator and an excellent human being," the minister added.

Condolences

Krishna conveyed his heartfelt condolences to the chief minister's family.

The doomed helicopter went missing after it took off from Tawang at 9.50am on Saturday.

The last radio contact with the ground was about 20 minutes after take-off as it flew over the Sela Pass along the Chinese border.

 
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