Arunachal Pradesh CM Dorjee Khandu's chopper makes safe landing

ITANAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Dorjee Khandu's chopper made emergency landing at Daporijo region on Saturday. All five passengers onboard the chopper are said to be safe.

Arunachal governor gen JJ Singh confirmed that the chief minister is safe.

Khandu, accompanied by two of his personal aides, had earlier taken off from Tawang at 9:56 am and was to land at Itanagar at 11:30 am. It was last sighted at Sela Pass, 20 minutes after taking off from Tawang, defence sources in Shillong said.

Earlier, the air force had pressed into service two helicopters in search operations to locate the missing chopper.

56-year-old Khandu, who had served in the intelligence wing of the Indian Army, was sworn on April 9, 2007 as the fifth chief minister of the state, replacing Gegong Apang.

This is the third helicopter to get into trouble in the Northeast in the last fortnight.

In the April 19 incident, a Pawan Hans helicopter crashed in the mountains of Tawang, bordering Tibet, killing all 17 people onboard. The helicopter crashed not far away from the helipad and the DGCA had found that proper firefighting facilities could have saved lives.

In the other incident, an Army helicopter crashed near Gangtok killing four occupants onboard.

The helicopter was flying from Guwahati to Itanagar via Tawang, Pawan Hans sources said.

The chopper was a Eurocopter B-3 and was just 4-5 months old. It was based in Itanagar.