The family of Ashish Tanwar, who was aboard the Indian Air Force (IAF AN-32) aircraft that went missing on June 3, has sought the help of the government to trace the missing crew. Mother of Ashish Tanwar, who is in a very bad state of mind since her son went missing, has made a fervent appeal to the authorities to locate her son and other missing members of the crew.

“I want my child. It’s been almost four days now but till now nothing has happened. I request the Ministry of Home Affairs to look into the matter and investigate.”

Earlier on Monday, the AN-32 transport aircraft disappeared with 13 persons on board hours after it took off from Assam’s Jorhat airbase for Menchuka Advance Landing Ground in Arunachal Pradesh located near the China border.

The IAF aircraft had last contacted ground sources at 1 pm after taking off from the Jorhat airbase at 12:25 pm.

The IAF had immediately scrambled Sukhoi-30 combat aircraft and C-130 Special Operations aircraft on a search mission to locate the missing plane.

On Wednesday, the IAF intensified efforts to locate the aircraft. The IAF had said that despite challenges posed by the vegetation, inhospitable terrain and poor weather, the search has been expanded.

“All leads from airborne sensors are being closely assessed and followed-up with search by aircraft &ground teams,” the IAF had said.

The Indian Navy had also deployed its long-range Maritime Reconnaissance aircraft P8i to join the ongoing rescue operation for the missing flight. The P8i took off from INS Rajali, Arakonam, Tamil Nadu for joining the Search & Rescue operation. It has been reported that the aircraft carried out search with Electro-Optical and Infra-Red (EO & IR) sensors in thickly forested areas.

The P8i aircraft as an asset has a very powerful Synthetic Aperture Radar which shall be utilized during the SAR sweeps to locate the missing plane. IAF is coordinating with the Indian Army as well as various government and civil agencies to locate the missing aircraft. The search operations from air and by ground parties are on for the missing flight.