A day after Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's helicopter went missing, it was located on Rudrakonda hill, 40 nautical miles east of Kurnool, but there was no word on his condition.
A day after Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's helicopter went missing, it was on Thursday located on Rudrakonda hill, 40 nautical miles east of Kurnool, but there was no word on his condition.
"As of now we have located the helicopter. It is on top of a hill at a distance 40 nautical miles (70 kms) east of Kurnool. Our helicopters are there. We are trying to locate whether there are any survivors," Air Commodore Sagar Bharti of the Bangalore air command told reporters in Kurnool.
"We are not sure if it has crashed or not. We are sure we have located the helicopter," he said. The signal code of the helicopter is 15471479.
Two helicopters were hovering over the area where the helicopter has been located and was looking for a spot to land.
Union Home Secretary G K Pillai told PTI in Delhi that it seems the helicopter has crash landed but there is no confirmation.
He said the Air Force was attempting to drop para commandos to the spot through ropes to look for survivors.
The 11-year-old Bell 430 helicopter carrying besides Reddy, his special secretary Subramaniam, Chief Secretary A S C Wesley, pilot Group Captain S K Bhatia and co-pilot M S Reddy lost radio contact one hour after it took off the from the old Begumpet Airport in Hyderabad at 0835 hrs on Wednesday.
Army has also sent out a team of 70-80 para commandos to the area to find any possible survivors.
The commandos brought from Bangalore are equipped with highly sophisticated weapons and modern gadgets to carry out search operations.
The helicopter was on its way to Chittoor in the southern part of the state where Reddy was to participate in a peoples' contact programme.
Air Commodore Bharti said since it was a hill and forest area it was difficult for the helicopters to land there.
A low-flying aircraft of ISRO had last evening scoured the area and took 41 imagery photos of the area. Four choppers were also pressed into service for search operations in the Nallamalai forest in Kurnool district on Wednesday.
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