NEW DELHI: An IAF AN-32 transport aircraft with 13 people on board went missing on Monday afternoon around 33 minutes after taking off from Jorhat in Assam for Arunachal’s Menchuka near the border with China.
Search operation continued last night to find out the IAF’s AN-32 transport aircraft missing.The aircraft lost contact with ground agencies after taking off from Jorhat airbase at 12:25 PM. Indian Air Force has deployed Sukhoi-30 combat aircraft and C-130 Special Ops aircraft on the search mission for locating the missing Aircraft that last contacted ground sources at 1 PM.
“Some ground reports were received on possible location of a crash site. Helicopters were routed to the location, however, no wreckage has been sighted so far,” the Indian Air Force said. The statement rebuts reports that the plane had crashed and the wreckage had been found.
IAF is coordinating with Indian Army as well as various government and civil agencies to locate the missing aircraft. The search operations from air and by ground parties of Indian Army are being carried out.Defence Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to Vice Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Rakesh Singh Bhadauria about the missing Aircraft.
Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said in a tweet that Air Marshal apprised him of the steps taken by the Indian Airforce to find the missing aircraft.