in which Arunchal Pradesh CM Dorjee Khandu and four others were killed on Saturday.
“A Committee of Inquiry headed by Air Marshal (Retd) P S Ahluwalia has been appointed to look into the circumstances of the accident of the helicopter near Labootang, Arunachal Pradesh, on April 30 while going from Tawang to Itanagar,” the Civil Aviation Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
The 3-member committee has been asked to submit its report in three months. Ahluwalia, with an experience of over forty years in the IAF, retired as the head of Western Air Command’s chief in 2008.
The other two members of the inquiry team are Group Captain (retd) T V Unnikrishnan and P K Chattopadhyay. Senior Air Safety Officer A K Joseph will be the Secretary of the committee.
The committee will investigate and determine the cause and contributory factors leading to the accident and make recommendations to avoid recurrence of such incidents, it added.
The committee has been asked to take assistance from other experts and agencies, if required, it said.
The copter carrying Khandu and four others had gone missing on Saturday and crashed in bad weather in the mountains and their bodies and the wreckage were located on Wednesday.
Khandu’s body arrives in Itanagar; PM, Sonia to pay homage
The body of Arunachal Pradesh CM Dorjee Khandu, who was killed in a helicopter crash, was brought to Itanagar Thursday. People paid their last respects here. On Friday his body would be taken to his home district, Tawang for the last rites.
The body, which was located on Wednesday from the accident site, was first taken to Luguthang and then airlifted to Tawang by an IAF helicopter along with the bodies of four others who were also killed in the crash on Saturday.
A large number of people lined the roadside as Khandu’s body, kept in a glass casket, was taken in a flower-bedecked vehicle from the Raj Bhawan helipad to the Chief Minister’s bungalow at Niti Vihar in Itanagar.
Priests belonging to various religions chanted hymns. A guard of honour by the ITBP, which guards the Indo- Bhutan border, was given as the body was flown to Itanagar by an IAF MI-172 chopper from Tawang on Thursday afternoon.
56-year-old Khandu’s second wife Rinchin Drema, eldest son Pema, elder brother Goleng, and Lok Sabha member Takam Sanjoy also came to Itanagar by the chopper.
President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi were among a host of leaders who have condoled Khandu’s death.
Singh and Gandhi are scheduled to arrive in Itanagar on Friday morning to pay their last respects.
Governor J J Singh along with Union ministers V Narayanasamy, B K Handique, Mukul Wasnik, Vincent Pala and Salman Khursheed laid wreaths at the coffin.
Assam Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain placed a wreath on behalf of Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.
Chief Secretary Tabom Bam announced a seven-day state mourning as a mark of respect to Khandu, even as a holiday was declared on Thursday. He said a state funeral would be accorded to the late leader.
The Assam government has also declared three days’ state mourning. The national flag will fly at half mast today and tomorrow in Arunachal Pradesh and in all states and UT capitals, including Delhi, a Union Home Ministry statement said in Delhi.