New Delhi: Eight days after Indian Air Force (IAF) AN-32 aircraft with 13 people on board went missing near the Arunachal Pradesh, the wreckage of the transport plane was found on Tuesday by a search team. The jet was carrying passengers from Assam's Jorhat to a remote base in Arunachal Pradesh when it went missing on June 3 at around 12:25 pm, half an hour after it took off. According to news agency ANI, the debris of the missing aircraft was found by Mi-17 helicopter of IAF. "The wreckage of the missing AN-32 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," an official statement of IAF said.

"After identification of wreckage of AN-32 by Mi-17V5, Cheetah of IAF & Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH) of Indian Army reached the crash site. Due to high elevation & dense forest, helicopters could not land next to the crash site," a latest statement by IAF read.

"Efforts are now continuing to establish the status of occupants & establish survivors. Further details will be communicated as the recovery actions progress," it said further. However, the statement by IAF had no mention of the 13 people who were travelling in the AN-32 jet. Massive search operations have been going on in the area ever since the IAF jet went missing last week.

Below is the visual of the wreckage of missing AN-32 passenger jet found earlier today 16 Kms North of Lipo, North East of Tato, at an approximate elevation of 12000 ft, in Arunachal Pradesh

(Image: ANI)

"The ground teams have made considerable headway into the search area, which has been progressively expanded based on inputs from multiple sources. Search on ground will continue through the night," an IAF official had said earlier. The IAF on June 9 had also announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh to anyone providing information about location of the AN-32 transport aircraft.

Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa reviewed the overall search operation at a high-level meeting in Assam's Jorhat air base. He also interacted with families of the officers and airmen who were on board the aircraft. As per reports, the assets deployed for the operation included Sukhoi-30 aircraft in addition to a fleet of C-130J and AN-32 planes and Mi-17 and ALH helicopters. The ground forces included troops from the Army, Indo Tibetan Border Police and state police.

The IAF has been regularly updating the families of all air warriors on board the aircraft about the rescue operation. IAF officials had also said that Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) satellites Cartosat and RISAT were taking images of the area around Menchuka to help the rescuers find the plane.

A total of eight aircrew and five passengers were on board the aircraft. The AN-32 is a Russian origin aircraft and the IAF currently operates a sizeable number of it. It is a twin-engine turboprop transport aircraft.