Merely 20 minutes after taking off from Tawang, a Himalayan Buddhist retreat, a helicopter carrying the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh Dorjee Khandu disappeared. Blame it on bad weather or what-have-you, such was the case on April 30, 2011. The wreckage and bodies were found only on May 4. Which makes us wonder, how many dignitaries of such stature have we lost to mysterious aerial crashes?

The first one to come to mind, apart from freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose, of course, is Sanjay Gandhi. He was taking a new aircraft of the Delhi Flying Club for a spin and while performing a particularly tricky acrobatic maneuver, he lost control of his flight and crashed. This was on June 23, 1980.

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Then there is the Chief Minister of United Andhra Pradesh YS Rajasekhara Reddy. The Congress leader, who was popularly known as YSR, was travelling to Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh when his chopper crashed in a forest. The state mourned and remained shrouded in mystery for over 27 hours until the remains and bodies were found.

Madhavrao Scindia from Congress, who was also a former Union Minister, suffered a tragic death too. While travelling to Kanpur to address a public rally he was killed in a Cessna aircraft crash.