The debris of the chopper from Pawan Hans Helicopter Limited, which went missing on Tuesday along with the three persons on board, was recovered in Arunachal Pradesh's Tirap district.
However, it is unknown whether the occupants of the chopper survived the accident or not. One Arunachal Pradesh government official and two pilots, including young IAS officer Kamalesh Joshi, were on board the helicopter when it went missing.
"The Air Force has confirmed that the wreckage of the missing helicopter has been found 12 km south of Khonsa, the headquarters of Tirap district," Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju told PTI.
An Air Force chopper is conducting air search in the area where the wreckage was found.
On 4 August, the Dauphin VT-PHK helicopter went missing soon after taking off from Khonsa at around 10:15 am. It was on its way to Longding district in Arunachal Pradesh. The Air Traffic Control (ATC) in Chabua contacted the pilot five minutes after take-off but lost communication thereafter, IANS reported.
Soon after the helicopter went missing, a blast-like sound was heard from a site and four Indian Air Force (IAF) and Pawan Hans helicopters were deployed for rescue operation. However, they had to suspend the operation due to bad weather.
In 2011, Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu and four other people were killed when the Pawan Hans helicopter they were flying in crashed at a remote location in the state. At least 16 people were killed in another helicopter crash a few days later.
The Pawan Hans Helicopter Services were then suspended in Arunachal Pradesh following the crash, but the services were resumed in 2013.
Pawan Hans Helicopter Services Limited (PHHL) has been providing chopper services across landlocked Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura and daily Guwahati-Tawang services for over 15 years.
