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Sep

2

Andhra chief minister’s chopper goes missing

September 2, 2009 posted by indiatime |

Y S Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR), the chief minister (CM) of Andhra Pradesh and his helicopter, both went missing for several hours earlier today, giving heart attacks to the state police, and spurring speculationss about his whereabouts.

Recent updates are confirming however, that the helicopter has landed safely in the Kurnool district, somewhere on an open playground in Bhanucharla village Atmakur area.

YSR was on a 3-district tour, traveling from Hyderabad towards Tirupati. His chopper began its journey at about 8:30 this morning, but went off the radar screens in a few minutes, about 79 nautical miles from Hyderabad’s Begumpet airport.

What is still worrying the authorities is that the helicopter and the CM were near the Nallamalla hill range, a known naxalite area, and even if the reports about the helicopter’s safe landing are to be believed, the CM still needs to be safely extricated from the area that may be a hotbed of terrorist/naxalite activity. The police are trying their best to keep the extrication part of their operation a secret, hoping to whisk YSR out of the dangerous area immediately.

Just yesterday, Tim Holding, an Australian politician traveling in his helicopter, had also gone missing somewhere close to one of Victoria’s highest mountains. Poor weather was blamed in that story, just as it is being said to be a huge factor in YSR’s helicopter story as well. But Tim Holding’s adventure had a good ending. Looks like YSR’s adventure too, may be over soon.

Update:
Earlier reports of the CM’s helicopter landing safely, have been left in doubt as there still is said to be no communication between the authorities and the missing CM. The search operations were called off a little earlier on account of severe weather