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.
An Antonov AN-32. (Representational Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
ISRO satellites have been pressed into service over parts of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam to locate the AN-32 transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) that went missing on Monday with 13 people on board.
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.
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.
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Sukhoi-30 combat aircraft, C-130J Super Hercules, another AN-32 aircraft, two Mi-17 of IAF and Indian Army ALH helicopters are on a continuous search mission since Monday despite cloudy weather conditions.
Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had earlier spoken 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 disappearance of the aircraft is very much similar to the 2009 tragedy.
In June 2009, an AN-32 aircraft went missing 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.
The government had declared that there were no survivors on board the plane.
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.
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