Hyderabad, Sept 2 :
A pall of gloom descended over Andhra Pradesh with the sudden disappearance of the chopper AW-139 carrying Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy on Wednesday. Mystery shrouds the disappearance even after ten hours of frantic aerial and Defence official search yielding no positive result till now. It is already more than 10 hours that the CM has missed.
A Low-flying copter from the National Remote Sensing Agency was drafted into service to trace the missing copter. The State Government is also exploring all possible national and international avenues with the required expertise to trace the missing copter. According to sources here, the copter carrying the Chief Minister was not air-worthy.
The mystery is fuelled by apprehensions of a crash involving the helicopter carrying the Chief Minister that went missing at about 9.50 a.m amid inclement weather. Fishermen and locals at Akkavarapu caves near Srisailam Dam are reported to have heard an unusually loud blast around the time when the copter lost contact. The place where the chopper was missing is stated to be infested with wild animals.
State ministers, politicians, top bureaucrats and people from all walks gathered at the Secretariat, the seat of the government, to learn about the mystery. Family members and well-wishers lined up at the Chief Minister’s camp office residence in Begumpet with anxiety writ large on their faces. All-religion prayers and masses were conducted throughout the length and breadth of the state for the safe emergence of their beloved leader from the woods.
The Chief Minister’s chopper took off from the Begumpet airport at 8.35 a.m, along with his Principal Secretary S Subramanyam and chief security officer ASC Wesley besides two pilots. The Chief Minister was heading for Chittoor from Kurnool to take part in a `meet-the-villagers’ programme. The seven-seater Bell chopper could fly at a continuous speed of 305-km per hour
Finance Minister K Rosaiah, who met media persons in the afternoon, confirmed the disappearance of the Chief Minister’s copter in Kurnool district due to foggy weather. He urged the locals, Chenchu tribals and all government officials to be alert and inform the nearest police station or the district headquarters in case they come across any information pertaining to the Chief Minister.
Addressing media persons, State Chief Secretary Ramakant Reddy said the officials of the Defence, Home and all Central government agencies and district collectors and police officials have been alerted.
State officials and the security personnel monitoring the official tour of the Chief Minister put on high alert higher-ups soon after the CM’s copter lost contact at about 62 nautical miles from the air traffic control.
The alert officials pressed the panic button and deployed six twinning all-weather Army choppers to search into the Nallamalai forests in Kurnool district from where the CM’s copter AW-139 was believed to have disappeared. While three helicopters were brought in from Bangalore Air Command, two were drafted from Hakimpet Air Command at Secunderabad.
A private copter was also pressed into service from Krishnapatnam to trace the missing chopper. However due to poor visibility and heavy downpour in the forests dissuaded the search operations of the choppers. Officials here say that they have not updated the data with regard to the VIP helicopters. Consequently the info available on the net with regard to the CM’s chopper is outdated, they claim.
The police stations in Kurnool district were put on high alert after the Copter went missing from the radar screen. The District Collector of Chittoor and other top officials frantically tried to establish contact with the Chief Minister's aides accompanying him.