Missing Ranbaxy helicopter still untraced

RAIPUR: The missing Ranbaxy helicopter with two pilots and an equal number of technical staff on board remained untraceable even today, three days after taking off from the Hyderabad airport.

Both ground and aerial search launched in Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to trace the Ran Air's helicopter, hired by Chhattisgarh government, have not yielded any result, Director General of Police Vishwaranjan told the media.

Helicopters from Chhattisgarh and Air Force have been deployed to trace the missing copter, Bell-430, which took off from Hyderabad at 3pm on Sunday and was supposed to land at regional headquarters of Bastar at Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh at 4.30 pm for refueling. However, the copter never landed at Jagdalpur, the DGP said.

All contacts with the helicopter were lost at about 4 pm and since after that its whereabouts are not known to either Andhra Pradesh or Chhattisgarh, Vishwaranjan said.

Ground forces have also failed to gather any information about the missing copter although an alert had been flashed to all the bordering police stations of Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh, he said.

A pilot involved in the search said two helicopters of Air Force and one from the Chhattisgarh Government were today pressed into operation to locate the copter. Sorties were taken on the likely route of the missing flying machine, he said.