New Delhi (PTI): In an irony of fate, a former top Madhya Pradesh aviation officer who was onboard a chopper that went missing recently was only last year part of a search team to find a missing helicopter.

Former state Aviation Director VP Singh was flying helicopter Bell 430, along with others, from Hyderabad to Chhattisgarh which went missing after 90 minutes of take off on August 3.

The missing official had been a part of a search operation group to find a Chhattisgarh helicopter -- Maina -- that crashed in Balaghat district of MP last year.

Maina was returning after some repairs in Bhopal when it crashed just before entering Chhattisgarh.

"Last year, he (Singh) flew the MP government chopper with me for 20 hours in search of the Chhattisgarh helicopter," engineer Navonil Sarathi, Singh's co-pilot during the last year's search operation, told PTI over phone from Bhopal.

"This time round, we had searched for the missing chopper having pilot Singh, co-pilot Rajesh Gaur, engineer Santosh Kumar and technician Ashwin Kumar for 15 hours in bad weather condition in Chhattisgarh but in vain," he said.