Army chopper with 4 on board goes missing in North Sikkim

MASSIVE SEARCH & RESCUE OPERATION HAMPERED BY INCLEMENT WEATHER
GANGTOK, 21 April: An army new helicopter has gone missing in North Sikkim and is feared to have crashed. Army sources have confirmed that the Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) of the Army Aviation Corps had taken off with a crew of four from a base in Siliguri and lost radio contact at around 11.30 a.m. while on a routine sortie over North Sikkim.
The fate of the helicopter and the crew remains uncertain and a search and rescue operation launched towards the Yumesamdong axis was hobbled by bad weather.
Sources inform that the last radio contact with the chopper was when it was in the Yumisamdong area which is under a fresh cover of snow is also thickly forested. This area is around 15 kilometers above Yumthang beyond Lachung in North Sikkim.

The army has launched a massive search operation with three helicopters pressed into service. Ground level search and rescue operations are also combing the area, but given the heavy snow and inaccessible terrain, aerial reconnaissance remains a more dependable option for now.
But as mentioned, inclement weather conditions, with even Gangtok being overcast today, led to the aerial search operations to be put on hold at around 2:30 p.m.