Missing IAF AN-32 aircraft wreckage found in Arunachal Pradesh
Itanagar: The wreckage of missing Indian Air Force (IAF) AN-32 aircraft was found in Siang district in Arunachal Pradesh. The aircraft had gone off radars after taking off Jorhat in Assam on June 3.
The wreckage was spotted by a Mi-17 helicopter, the IAF has confirmed.
The wreckage of the missing #An32 was spotted today 16 Kms North of Lipo, North East of Tato at an approximate elevation of 12000 ft by the #IAF Mi-17 Helicopter undertaking search in the expanded search zone..
— Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) June 11, 2019
Thirteen persons were on board, comprising six offices and five airmen and two non-combatants. The aircraft was headed towards Menchuka Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) in Arunachal Pradesh near the Chinese border.
It took off at around 12:30 pm and had the last contact with the ground at about 1 pm. Search operations were launched soon after.
The aircraft had the following persons on board: Wing Commander Charles, Squadron Leader Vinod, Flight Lieutenant M Garg, Flight Lieutenant Mohanty, Flight Lieutenant Tanwar, Flight Lieutenant Thapa, Warrant Officer KK Mishra, Sergent Anoop, Corporal Sharin, LAC Pankaj, LAC SK Singh, NE(E) Rajesh Kumar, NC(E) Putali.
The Indian Air Force in collaboration with various other authorities had launched massive search operations to find out the missing aircraft. Night operations were also launched using by unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and C-130.
According to reports, ISRO’s Cartosat and RISAT satellites were also monitoring and taking pictures of the area around Menchuka in order to locate the plane.