Anchorage (US) (AP): No survivors were found after a helicopter carrying a pilot and three state workers crashed in a shallow lake in Alaska's North Slope region, officials said on Friday.

The helicopter had been chartered by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, the department said in a statement on Friday.

It was carrying three employees from the Division of Geological and Geophysical Survey who had been conducting field work.

"DNR is praying for our employees and the pilot, their families, and the DNR team," the statement said. "We are continuing to await updates from the search and rescue effort."

The helicopter, a Bell 206, was reported overdue Thursday night. A North Slope Borough search and rescue team in a helicopter found debris matching the description of the missing helicopter, but no bodies had been seen or recovered, D.J. Fauske, the borough's director of government and external affairs, said in a text to The Associated Press on Friday.

The wreckage was found in a shallow lake near Wainwright, about 50 miles south to southwest of Utqiagvik, the northernmost city in the US, formerly known as Barrow.

The flight originated in Utqiagvik and was supposed to return there, said Clint Johnson, chief of the National Transportation Safety Board's Alaska region. Johnson said he did not immediately have further information on the flight details.

The helicopter was operated by Maritime Helicopters Inc., according to a statement on the company's website. It confirmed the accident was fatal and said names of the pilot and passengers would be released pending notification of next of kin.

The borough notified the Federal Aviation Administration and state officials as well as NTSB, Fauske said.

"The borough is here to help and we will pray for the missing," he said.

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Culture allegedly spent Rs 76.13 lakh on print advertisements marking the 100-year celebrations of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), according to a Right to Information (RTI) reply.

The information was sought by RTI activist Ajay Basudev Bose, who filed an application seeking details on expenditure incurred by the ministry for advertisements commemorating the RSS centenary.

Bose shared a picture of the reply from the ministry on his official ‘X’ handle.

“It is informed that an amount of Rs 76,13,129 has been spent on advertisement given in various print media by the Ministry of Culture on the occasion of the completion of 100 years of RSS,” the government’s reply stated.

Bose questioned the expenditure in the post X, “when Everyone knows RSS is Not Registered & Does not Pay any Tax is it justified to spend Tax Payers Money on such Private event??”

Reacting to the development, Karnataka’s IT-BT and Panchayat Raj Minister Priyank Kharge also criticised the spending.

In a post on X, he asked why public money was being used for what he described as a “private ideological project” and questioned the government’s decision to fund advertisements related to the organisation’s centenary.

According to reports, the RSS, founded in 1925, describes itself as a volunteer-based organisation and has stated that it functions as a body of individuals rather than a registered entity.