No indication of YSR''s chopper crash landing: Rosaiah

A massive search operation is on in the Nallamalla forest area where Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy''s helicopter believed to have gone missing. The Indian Space Research Organisation captured 41 high resolution images of the territory where the chopper went missing and the data is now being analysed at the National Remote Sensing Agency at Balanagar here, State Finance Minister K Rosaish and Chief Secretary P Ramakant Reddy said.

While ground search operations are still on, five helicopters and one aircraft will be pressed into service early tomorrow morning to trace the missing helicopter, they told reporters tonight at the State Secretariat here. Hundreds of CRPF and State Commando Forces are conducting ground searches in the dense forest using powerful night vision devices.

IGP Rajiv Trivedi has been deputed to lead the ground search operations while both revenue and police machinery in Kurnool and neighbouring districts have been put on high alert. There is no indication of any crash landing because the helicopter equipped with an Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) capable of automatic transmission of frequency would have become active in case of any crash landing or such other unforeseen eventuality, Rosaiah said.