Hyderabad, Sep 2 - A low-flying aircraft of the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) joined the operations to trace Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy's helicopter that went missing Wednesday morning.

State Chief Secretary P. Ramakant Reddy told reporters that the aircraft would continue the search operations in the night.

'The aircraft can fly at a height of 1.25 km and can cover 250 square kilometres. It can also fly in inclement weather and in the night. We hope to get some information from this aircraft,' he said.

He said the state government through the government of India was also trying to get help from the US defence department to get real-time satellite imagery of the area where the chopper was last seen.

Reddy said the other satellite imagery available in India was not real-time and the cloud formation over the region during the last couple of days had made penetration difficult.

He aldo said the aircraft was last seen by some villagers between 9.15 a.m. and 9.30 a.m. between Atmakur and Bandi Atmakur in Kurnool district. 'After 9.45 a.m. we lost radio contact. It is presumed that from Kurnool it was crossing Nallamalla forests towards Prakasam district,' he added.