GUWAHATI, 23 September 2004 — Ten people including a provincial minister and two legislators were killed in a helicopter crash yesterday in India’s northeastern state of Meghalaya, officials said. “There were no survivors in the crash and the wreckage of the helicopter is strewn all over the place in dense jungle,” C. Shadap, a senior police official in Meghalaya’s capital Shillong, told AFP by telephone.
“A team of police and local villagers reached the site of the crash late yesterday.” The dead include C. R. Sangma, Meghalaya minister of community and rural development, and two state legislators, H. N. Marak and A. Choudhury. The helicopter, carrying eight passengers and two pilots, crashed and burst into flames near Kyrbemkulai, about 50 kilometers from Shillong.
The wreckage was earlier thought to have been spotted closer to Shillong, the helicopter’s destination. The chopper, which belonged to the state government, left on a scheduled flight from Guwahati, capital of the neighboring state of Assam, around 1:30 p.m. (0600 GMT) and went off the radar half an hour later. “According to reports from the air traffic control the helicopter crashed in a thickly forested area when it was returning to Guwahati after failing to land in Shillong due to bad weather,” Meghalaya government spokesman R. R. Marak said.
Top civil aviation experts were to travel from New Delhi today to investigate the cause of the crash, Marak added.
“Witnesses said they saw the helicopter going up in flames after it crashed into the forest. Before anybody could reach the spot, it was all over,” Marak said. “All the bodies were found in a highly mutilated condition. We can retrieve the bodies only Thursday as the terrain is very hostile and can be reached by boat as there is a big stream.”
