PM calls emergency meeting after YSR’s chopper is traced

New Delhi, Sep 3 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday convened an emergency meeting with Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee after the helicopter carrying Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy was traced in the state’s Nallamalla forest.

Details of the meeting were unavailable but senior home ministry officials told IANS that the prime minister was briefed on the operation in the tough terrain and the difficulty of search parties in reaching the spot where the mangled Bell helicopter 430 was found.

The fate of the chief minister and four others remain uncertain.

“It is going to take some time to reach the hilltop and to find out if there was indeed a crash landing,” said an official.

Para commandos have also been roped in the search operations.

The helicopter was traced Thursday morning, 24 hours after it went missing in the dense Nallamalla forests in Kurnool district, according to defence officials.

The helicopter, carrying the chief minister, his special secretary, chief security officer and two pilots, took off from Hyderabad at 8.35 a.m. Wednesday for Chittoor district. Around 9.45 a.m., the chopper lost contact with air traffic control.