About 48 hours after getting the first lead of missing Ranbaxy helicopter, the authorities could reach the accident spot Saturday afternoon only to find the wreckage and skeletons of crew members scattered over two kilometres area.
The Dantewada police on Thursday received vital tip offs from a villager who discovered the wreckage of the copter Bell-430 of Ranbaxy promoters' private charter company, Ran Air Services, on the hills of Pamlurugutta in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh (AP) while grazing cattle.
The villager came with the identity card of one of the four crew members on board to substantiate his claims. The hills however straddle between AP and Chhattisgarh. But the wreckage was discovered on the other part of the border and hence the information was passed on to the Andhra Pradesh police.
Since the area had easy accessibility from Chhattisgarh, a police party from AP accompanied by the local authority yesterday afternoon reached the spot. A team of villagers was first sent to the spot to verify whether the Naxalites had laid any trap to ambush the security personnel.
Sources said the entire pocket was under the influence of rebels. As the Naxalites had earlier planted false leads about the chopper to invite the security personnel into their den, the security personnel developed the information first before making a move. However, it took about 48 hours of them to reach the spot.
The chopper went missing shortly after taking off from Hyderabad on August 3. Four persons including pilot, co-pilot and two technicians were on board when it lost control with the Air Traffic Control after flying half-an-hour.
The helicopter was hired by the Chhattisgarh government to take state Home Minister Ram Vichar Netam to Ranchi on August 4, 2008. It was scheduled to land in Jagdalpur en-route Raipur for re-fuelling. But when the chopper did not reach Jagdalpur, a massive search operation was launched.
Despite putting all its resources, the Chhattisgarh government failed to get any clue. “How could we get information when the wreckage was lying in Andhra Pradesh?” said a senior state police. Had the AP government acted responsibly, it would have not taken three-and-a-half months to discover the chopper, he added. When the chopper went missing, AP government put the ball in Chhattisgarh’s court stating that the helicopter had crossed into its (Chhattisgarh) border when it lost contact with the ATC, the official said, adding that this concentrated the entire search operation in the state.
Besides the laptops, cell phones, airbags and other documents of the crew members have been recovered from the spot.
