Fresh search to trace missing Ranbaxy copter

            Raipur, September 13, 2008: Fresh search would be started soon to trace the Bell-430 helicopter, which went missing from Hyderabad on August 3, last while en route to Chhattisgarh, a top official said today.

            On request of the Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh, the Defence Ministry has deputed two Indian Air Force helicopters to locate the Ran Air’s helicopter, Director, Civil Aviation Department of Chhattisgarh Government, Anil Tuteja told the ChhattisgarhTopNews.Com here today.

             The IAF copters would also be fitted with latest equipments, which would help in locating the Bell-430 helicopter, Tuteja said.

            The Ranbaxy copter was to land at 4.30 PM at Jagdalpur, the headquarters of Bastar region, on August 3 after its take off from Hyderabad at 3.00 PM but in between it lost contact and the whereabouts of the copter was not known to any one, Bastar Range Inspector General of Police A N Upadhyaya said.

             After searches by helicopters from Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh besides Indian Air Force failed to provide any result, forces were sent to various places spread over districts like Bijapur, Dantewada, Bastar, Kanker, and even Dhamtari in Chhattisgarh to trace the missing copter, the IGP said.

             The help of the National Remote Sensing Agency had also not yielded any result, officials said adding subsequently the aerial search had also been withdrawn, and it is expected that in a day or two fresh searches would be started. 

             Chhattisgarh government had hired the missing helicopter from Ran Air to take its Home Minister Ram Vichar Netam to Jharkhand but before it landed in Raipur to take the VIP, the copter went missing with Chief Pilot Capt V P Singh and Co-Pilot R Gaur and Flight Engineer Santosh Kumar and Technician Ashwini Kumar on board, Chief Pilot of Chhattisgarh Government Squadron Leader Dibya Shankar Mishra said.