Andhra Pradesh chief minister's chopper goes missing

The most powerful Congress chief minister in the country, YS Rajasekhara Reddy of Andhra Pradesh, went missing in his Bell 430 twin-engine helicopter over the dense forest area of Nallamalla near Kurnool district on Wednesday morning.

The copter, which was also carrying Reddy’s principal secretary S Subramanyam, chief security officer ASC Wesley, and two pilots, left Hyderabad’s Begumpet airport around 8.35am and was heading for Chittoor. Radio contact was lost at around 9.35am.

While officials are hoping against hope that the 60-year-old chief minister, who led his party to a resounding victory in the last Lok Sabha polls, is safe, hope began fading when nothing was heard till midnight.

The central and state governments have launched the biggest search and rescue mission in Indian history. Every resource, from remote sensing satellites to the IAF’s Sukhoi-30 jets and military helicopters, from special commandos to army soldiers and forest and revenue officials, has been deployed to trace the copter. The search  will continue till the copter is finally found. Lending a keener sense of urgency to the search was the fact that the dense forests have provided a safe haven to Naxals.

National security advisor MK Narayanan, however, said that the helicopter was unlikely to have been brought down by Naxals since they did not have the capability.

The chief minister was heading for Chittoor some 600 km to the south-west to participate in an official event scheduled for 11am. His state-owned helicopter was to land at 10.55am. After take-off, it remained in touch with air traffic control (ATC) till around 9.35am. The state chief secretary, P Ramakant Reddy, said the helicopter was crossing the Nallamalla forests towards Ongole in Prakasam district and the pilot may have encountered high-speed winds and inclement weather.

Villagers in Atmakur and Bandi Atmakur in Kurnool district reported seeing a helicopter passing through the sky between 9.15am and 9.30am.

Officials say the disruption in the communication link with the helicopter was initially put down to bad weather. However, subsequent attempts by the ATC staff to reconnect failed too. It was at this stage — when the helicopter had remained missing for about 45 minutes — that alarm bells started ringing. abouts started rising in the country, confusion prevailed as officials in the CM’s office continued to claim that there was information about Reddy’s safety.

It was only at 3.45pm that clarity emerged. State finance minister K Rosaiah confirmed that the CM’s helicopter could not be traced and search operations were indeed on. Rosaiah has assumed charge in Reddy’s absence.

Search operations gained strength as the criticality of the situation grew through the day. About 11 helicopters, including six from the state and five from the centre, were pressed into service.

On the ground, Greyhounds, who specialise in anti-Maoist operations, and around 5,000 security personnel drawn from various branches were sent into the forest for an all-night search. Fourteen teams of tribals, armed with powerful torchlights and BSNL Sim cards, are also part of the mission. BSNL, which has cell towers in the forest, has increased the signal strength to ensure connectivity.

With helicopters unable to participate in the search after dark, the government has requested Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) to send in a low-flying aircraft to scan the area. The National Remote Sensing Agency’s aircraft can fly at low heights and scan 250 sq km of area in a single sortie. It also has night flying capability.

Isro’s satellites were unable to help with real-time data as the weather was cloudy and the call from the Andhra government for help came too late. The government has also sent a request to the US defence department to share real-time satellite imagery of the area.

It is still unclear how the official machinery in the state remained clueless about the CM’s whereabouts despite multiple communication methods, including satellite phones, mobiles, GPS and other sophisticated technology being available with the pilots.

Concern poured in from all quarters. President Pratibha Patil, who is currently in Moscow, was in touch with Rosaiah during the day to enquire about the efforts of the government to trace the missing CM. Several governors, chief ministers and other political bigwigs of the country were quick to respond to the situation too.