Indian Air Force in association with the Army and Indo Tibetan Border Police on Tuesday resumed the search operation for the AN-32 aircraft that has remained missing from the skies of Arunachal Pradesh since Monday afternoon.

According to reports, the Antonov AN-32 aircraft carrying 13 persons had last contacted ground sources at 1 pm Monday after taking off from Assam’s Jorhat airbase at 12:25 pm for Menchuka Advance Landing Ground in Arunachal Pradesh.

The Mechuka Advanced Landing Ground is located near the China border.

“Search and rescue (SAR) operation resumes as the weather clears up on Tuesday,” Wing Commander Ratnakar Singh said.

He further said two MI 17s and one ALH have been deployed with the ground party of Army and ITBP adding that more assets may be deployed if required.

IAF officials said that since the aircraft did not reach the destination, overdue actions were initiated by the Indian Air Force.

On Monday, C-130, another AN-32 aircraft, two Mi-17 of IAF and Indian Army ALH helicopters were launched to locate the missing aircraft. Some ground reports were received on the possible location of a crash site; however, no wreckage has been sighted so far.

So after the disappearance of the aircraft, the IAF had scrambled Sukhoi-30 combat aircraft and C-130 Special Operations aircraft on a search mission.

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to Air Marshal Rakesh Singh Bhadauria, the Vice Chief of the Air Staff, and inquired about the missing aircraft.

The district administration of Shi Yomi district in Arunachal Pradesh also launched a search operation along with the villagers.

The missing AN-32 has brought back the memories of a similar tragedy in 2009.

In June 2009, an AN-32 aircraft went missing on Monday, after going off the radar was later found to have crashed in the jungles of the area, which falls between West Singa and Shi Yomi districts.

The distressing fact is that the aircraft also had 13 people on board and was flying for Mechuka advanced landing ground.

In July 2016, Indian Air Force An-32 aircraft went missing over the Bay of Bengal with 29 people on board.

It was presumed that there were no survivors on board the aircraft.

The ill-fated AN-32 had taken off on a routine courier flight to Port Blair from Tambaram air base near Chennai on 22 July at 8.30 am with six crew and 23 personnel, but never arrived at the destination. It was last seen on radars at 9 am.

Following the disappearance, the Indian Air Force launched what later became India’s largest search operation for a missing plane over the sea. The aircraft was never found and search operations were called off on September 2016.