IAF rubbishes reports of tracing missing ALH in Arunachal

Rubbishing the reports of the debris of the missing Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) being found, the Indian Air Force (IAF) on Wednesday said the search for it is still on.

IAF Public Relations Officer (PRO) said that the photographs shown by some channels of the supposed missing helicopter are wrong.

"Some electronic channels had shown photograph of the supposed crash site of the ALH today afternoon. Prima facie it appears that the photo is not of the missing ALH and in any case not from official sources," the IAF PRO said in a statement.

The statement further said that the search for the missing helicopter will continue once the weather is clear.

"The search is continuing. Certain leads that the ground parties obtained will be intensively searched once the weather clears tomorrow. Will share any fresh updates as soon as it is available with me," it read.

The IAF ALH that was deployed for lifting people stranded due to road blockage went missing, along with three crew members, between Sagalee and Itanagar districts of Arunachal Pradesh on Tuesday.

The chopper was rescuing people who were stranded due to landslides that were triggered by rain.

Informing about the incident, Minister of State (MoS) Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said, "Weather is turbulent in North-East. I'm safe but whole State machinery is geared up to locate IAF ALH chopper missing almost at same time".

Rijiju further tweeted, "Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu and state government are mobilizing local people to locate missing IAF helicopter which was on a rescue mission."

"CM @PemaKhanduBJP ji & State Govt mobilizing local people to locate the missing IAF helicopter which was on a rescue mission in Arunachal".