Shillong, May 4 (IANS) While the aerial survey and satellite imagery data failed to pinpoint the exact location, it was a team of local people, untrained and with no equipment, that found the wreckage of the helicopter carrying Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu Wednesday morning.
According to M.S. Bhurji, eastern sector chief of the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), the delay in locating the wreckage was due to the failure of the aerial mapping efforts.
"We were concentrating on the southwest areas of Sela Pass based on inputs from the aerial reconnaissance and satellite imagery data. However, the wreckage was discovered by the local people on the northeast of Sela. That's why it took so long," Bhurji told IANS.
The wreckage was discovered "not by any force or not even by some aerial recce, but by local residents of that area," he stressed.
The civilians were not trained in mapping, neither did they have any (mapping) instrument to coordinate the search, he said.
According to Bhurji, it will be a hard task to bring the bodies up to a place where a helicopter can land and fly them away. The areas are thickly forested and terrains are treacherous, he said.
"It's up to the crisis management teams at Dirang and Itanagar to decide," he said.
"Now that the people have discovered the wreckage, our people (ITBP troopers) have moved to Kyela and will assess the situation," Bhurji added.
The wreckage was sighted around 10 a.m. by a group of civilians led by a Village Defence Party (VDP) after an arduous four-hour trek near Lobotang, 30 km north of the 13,700 feet Sela Pass in Tawang district.
Family members reached the crash site and identified the body of Khandu. The other four bodies were mutilated and charred beyond recognition, officials said.
The Pawan Hans AS350 B-3 helicopter carrying the chief minister and four others went missing after it took off from Tawang at 9.50 a.m. Saturday, leading to a massive search that included aerial survey and satellite imaging by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).