**A helicopter carrying a powerful Indian politician has disappeared during a flight over a Maoist rebel stronghold in the south, officials say.**Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s helicopter took off from Hyderabad on Wednesday morning.
But it disappeared in bad weather as it flew over forests where Maoist rebels are known to operate, officials said.
A massive operation involving air force helicopters has been launched to try to locate the aircraft.
No contact
“We hope that he would be safe but we could not establish any contacts as the forest is dense and heavy rains are continuing in the area,” state Finance Minister K Roshaiah said.
He appealed to the people living in and around the Nallamalla forest - where the helicopter went missing - to look out for the chief minister, saying he might be stranded in a remote place.
The minister said the helicopter might have made an emergency landing because of the heavy rain in the area.
Rain has made the search operation difficult, reducing many areas to mud, he said.
The helicopter carrying Mr Reddy and four others took off from Hyderabad’s Begumpet airport at 0845 IST (0315 GMT) bound for the village of Anupally in Chittoor district.
It was scheduled to land at 1045 but went missing at 0936 while flying over Kurnool district.
There are many Maoist rebels in Nallamalla district and officials say they are worried about the chief minister’s safety.
my chief minister YS Raj sekhar Reddy's helicopter went missing, in a deep dense forest, He is one of the greatest leader my state ever had,
my hometown has seen development from pass 5 yrs which we have't seen in 50 yrs
Please pray for his safe return, he is a protestant christian and his govt got re elected this year
Long Live YSR
the great leader is no more, he sent 33 congress MP's from AP , he is everything for congress party in AP, the smiling face you never see in any leader,
the only leader who never lost an election in his life,
he got record majority of 4.8 lakhs for MP and 90000 for MLA
^^ It is sad moment and irrecoverable loss for AP and India, there are few visionary leaders/politicians in the South Asia and as per comments/replies of Indian guppies he was one of them.
He is the second Indian Chief Minsiter to be killed in a plane/chopper crash.
The first C.M to be killed was Mr.Balwantrai Mehta (Gujarat Chief Minister)in 1965 when his plane was chased down by two Pak fighters over Rann of Kutch. ...............Surprisingy no media touches this .
