Tuki leads Aruchal to pay tributes

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT

ITAGAR, Aug 13: The union civil aviation ministry has ordered an inquiry into the crash of the Pawan Hans chopper with three on board including Tirap deputy commissioner Dr Kamlesh Kumar Joshi, Aruchal Pradesh Chief Minister bam Tuki informed today. Talking to reporters at Dibrugarh in neighbouring Assam after paying last respects to the mortals remains on the trio Tuki said that the inquiry report would help to know the cause of the crash. “The loss of invaluable lives is a tiol loss and the people and government of Aruchal Pradesh would remain indebted to the families of Dr Joshi and captains M S Brar and Rajeev Hoskote,” Tuki said.

Tuki today air-dashed to Dibrugarh with Khonsa East MLA Wanglam Sawin, Chief Secretary Ramesh Negi, ADC to governor Tage Habung and other officers.

Tuki along with the Chief Secretary consoled Joshi’s young wife Neha, his younger brother Maj Rajeev Joshi and cousin brother Deepak Joshi, before paying last respects to the mortals remains followed by MLAS and officers.

While mortal remains of Joshi and Brar were flown to Delhi in an AN 32 IAF plane, deployed at the request of the Aruchal government, Hoskote’s mortal remains were flown in a Pawan Hans chopper to Guwahati for onward transportation.

The same chopper had flown the mortal remains from Khonsa this morning to Dibrugarh and post mortem and embalming were done at the Assam Medical College.

Changlang DC Chanchal Yadav and East Siang DC Nidhi Srivastav were accompanying Joshi’s relatives, while MLAs Tirong Aboh (Khonsa West), Wanglam Sawin (Khonsa East) & Zingnu mchoom (msai) had joined the CM’s team at Dibrugarh.

The Dauphin VT-PHK chopper of Pawan Hans Limited with all three men had lost all contact with the Air Traffic Control five minutes after taking off in the morning of August 4.

The thick forests and inclement weather meant that the search operations were severely hampered for a week. In spite of the Army and the Air Force taking part in the search operations, the crash site was located only on Monday, six days after it went missing.  The helicopter had crashed against a 6,000-feet high mountain near a place called Pongkhong which is around 16 km from the district headquarters of Khonsa. The wreckage had fallen in a 400-feet deep gorge.