India chopper with CM goes missing

GUWAHATI: A helicopter carrying the chief minister of a northeast Indian state went missing Saturday in bad weather, with confusion over its fate after Bhutan officials denied reports it had landed safely there.

Dorjee Khandu, chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh and a member of the ruling Congress party, was flying from Tawang near the Chinese border to state capital Itanagar when his helicopter lost contact with air traffic control.

The helicopter -- a single-engine Eurocopter AS350 B-3 operated by state-run Pawan Hans, which was carrying two pilots and three passengers -- was earlier reported by Indian media to have made a safe emergency landing in Bhutan.

But Bhutanese officials later said they had no report of an Indian helicopter landing in the Himalayan kingdom.

"We have heard through the media about the helicopter landing in Bhutan, but we don't have any reports of an Indian helicopter landing in our territory," said S. Duba, deputy commissioner of Bhutan's Trashiyangtse district where the chopper was said to have landed.

"We have deployed troops and local villagers to see if any helicopter has landed here," Duba told AFP by telephone.

Arunachal Pradesh member of parliament Takam Sanjay told AFP the helicopter's whereabouts was unknown. (AFP)