AP CM YSR FOUND (HELICOPTER FOUND)

AP CM Y S Rajasekhara reddy's chopper found today, 24 hours after it went missing, the helicopter carrying Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was today located on Rudrakonda hill, 40 nautical miles east of here, but there was no word on his condition. "As of now we have located the helicopter. It is on top of a hill at a distance 40 nautical miles (70 kms) east of Kurnool. Our helicopters are there. We are trying to locate whether there are any survivors," Air Commodore Sagar Bharti of the Bangalore air command told reporters here. "We are not sure if it has crashed or not.

We are sure we have located the helicopter," he said. The signal code of the helicopter is 15471479. Two helicopters were hovering over the area where the helicopter has been located and was looking for a spot to land. Union Home Secretary G K Pillai told PTI in Delhi that it seems the helicopter has crash landed but there is no confirmation. He said the Air Force was attempting to drop para commandos to the spot through ropes to look for survivors. The 11-year-old Bell 430 helicopter carrying besides Reddy, his special secretary Subramaniam, Chief Secretary A S C Wesley, pilot Group Captain S K Bhatia and co-pilot M S Reddy lost radio contact one hour after it took off the from the old Begumpet Airport in Hyderabad at 0835 hrs yesterday.