No evidence of air crash in Chhattisgarh's Jashpur, say officials

Jashpur, Chhattisgarh: No evidence of an aircraft crash has been found in Chhattisgarh's Jashpur so far, the district authorities clarified on Monday.

The clarification came amidst reports of a suspected air crash in a hilly terrain in the district, which kept the local administration and police on their toes in the afternoon.

Claims of a crash gained traction after a video showing smoke rising from a hill, along with a picture of an aircraft, in the Narayanpur area, went viral on social media. Several news channels and web portals went on to report it as a crash incident.

Acting on the reports, District Collector Rohit Vyas and Senior Superintendent of Police Lal Umend Singh rushed to the spot, and a search operation was launched around 3 pm.

"We received information through media reports about a plane crash in the Narayanpur area. We reached the spot and initiated a search operation, but no evidence has been found so far," Vyas told reporters in the evening.

Teams from the forest department are also present at the site, and drone surveillance is being carried out, he said.

"We also contacted Air Traffic Control (ATC) authorities in Jharkhand and Odisha, but received no information about any missing aircraft," he said.

The collector noted that forest fires are common in the region during summer and cautioned against linking such incidents without verification.

"Forest fires frequently occur here during the summer, and the forest department regularly works to douse them. It would not be appropriate to connect this with a plane crash," he said, adding that the search operation is still ongoing.

According to officials from the forest department, the smoke seen in the viral video was due to a forest fire, which has since been brought under control.

Officials said they are gathering information from locals, but no one reported hearing any explosion. So far, no signs of any crash have been found.

Teams from the police, district administration, and forest department continue to monitor the area using drones. As of now, authorities have not found any evidence of an aircraft-related accident, a government statement said.