ARUNACHAL Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu, who went missing on Saturday (April 30) on a flight from Tawang, is dead along with four others after their helicopter crashed due to bad weather in the mountains and their bodies and the wreckage were located yesterday.
The five, including two pilots, who took off in a single-engined EuroCopter B8 of Pawan Hans, perished in the crash and the bodies and wreckage of the chopper were spotted in a place between Kyela and Lobothang in the mountainous region of the State today morning.
“The Chief Minister and four others are dead,” Union Minister for Development of Northeastern Region B K Handique told a press conference in New Delhi today evening.
The other occupants of the helicopter were pilots Capt. JS Babbar, Capt. TS Mamik, Khandu’s security officer Yeshi Choddak and Yeshi Lhamu, sister of Tawant MLA Tsewang Dhondup.
This is the second death of a Chief Minister in two years after the death of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy in a helicopter crash in the Nallamalla ranges in September 2009.
There was also another crash involving a Pawan Hans helicopter a fortnight ago in Arunachal mountains, in which 17 people were killed.
Twice the Chief Minister of this North Eastern State, 56-year-old Khandu, who belongs to Monpa tribe, leaves behind four wives, four sons and two daughters.
Khandu had worked in the military intelligence and participated in the Bangladesh liberation war of 1971. He had received a gold medal for meritorious service during the war.
