She is also in touch with the senior officials overseeing search operations from the state secretariat.

Sources in the chief minister's office said Congress president Sonia Gandhi also spoke to YSR's wife and other family members over phone.

The chief minister's son-in-law evangelist Brother Anil Kumar is returning to Hyderabad by cutting short his visit to the US.

YSR's brother Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy offered special prayers in a church in their native Pulivendula town in Kadapa district.

YSR, who turned 60 July 8, was on his way to Chittoor district from Hyderabad to attend a function when the chopper carrying him and four others went missing.