Rescue teams zero in on chopper crash site in Arunachal Pradesh

Itanagar: The Indian Air Force and the Arunachal Pradesh government on Monday confirmed they had zeroed in on two sites in the West Kameng district bordering Bhutan where the helicopter carrying state chief minister Dorjee Khandu may have gone down. The 'hot spots' that appear on the imagery taken by the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) of the top-of-the-line Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter indicate the presence of metals.

The area narrowed down for search comprises 66 sq km in the West Kameng district, bordering Bhutan.

The four-seater, single-engine Pawan Hans helicopter went missing on Saturday after taking off from Tawang with Khandu, his security officer, Yeshi Choddak, Yeshi Lhamu, sister of Tawang MLA Tsewang Dhondup and crew members Capt JS Babbar and Capt TS Mamik on board.

Imagery data collected by ISRO and IAF are being analysed and by all agencies for the forces on ground to carry out their search operation in the Nagajiji area of West Kameng, power minister and government spokesman Jarbom Gamlin said on Monday.

"The metallic objects spotted by ISRO satellite images might not be the wreckage of the chopper. Everything will be clear once the teams reach the spot," he added.

Union minister of state in the PMO, V Narayansami, said it was not possible for the search teams to move more than one km an hour because of the hostile terrain.