No survivors found at AN-32 crash site in Arunachal Pradesh, IAF pays tribute to brave air-warriors

Earlier on Wednesday, a team of personnel from Indian Air Force, Army, and some civil mountaineers were airlifted to a location close to the crash site to look for possible survivors.

PTI FILE IMAGE

New Delhi: After days of gruelling air and ground search, Indian Air Force (IAF) on Thursday reported that no survivors were found at the wreckage site of AN-32 transport aircraft that went missing on June 3 while on a routine maintenance sortie in Arunachal Pradesh.  The Indian Air Force informed on Twitter that "eight members of the rescue team have reached the crash site today morning. IAF is sad to inform that there are no survivors from the crash of An32." The air-warriors who lost their life in the tragic crash were - GM Charles, H Vinod, R Thapa, A Tanwar, S Mohanty, MK Garg, KK Mishra, Anoop Kumar, Sherin, SK Singh, Pankaj, Putali and Rajesh Kumar. Earlier on Wednesday, a team of personnel from Indian Air Force, Army, and some civil mountaineers were airlifted to a location close to the crash site to look for possible survivors. The wreckage of the AN-32 aircraft of the Indian Air Force was spotted in a heavily forested mountainous terrain by an IAF Mi-17 helicopter, eight days after it went missing with 13 crewmembers and passengers who were on board the ill-fated aircraft.

Indian Air Force: IAF pays tribute to the brave air-warriors who lost their lives during the #AN32 aircraft crash on 3 Jun 2019 and stands by with the families of the victims. May their souls rest in peace. https://t.co/SJjGYIwIcj

— ANI (@ANI) June 13, 2019

The Russian-origin AN-32 aircraft was going from Jorhat in Assam to Menchuka advanced landing ground near the border with China on June 3 when it lost contact with ground staff at 1 pm, within 33 minutes of taking off. The IAF launched a massive operation after the aircraft went missing and the wreckage of the plane was spotted on Tuesday at a height of 12,000 feet near north of Lipo locality. The IAF said efforts are on to establish the status of occupants amid fears that chances of any survivor in one of the worst accidents involving a military platform in recent years may be very bleak. Almost exactly a decade ago, in a similar crash, 13 military personnel were killed in June 2009, when an AN-32 crashed soon after taking off from Mechuka. On July 22, 2016, an AN-32 with 29 personnel on board vanished into the Bay of Bengal while flying from Chennai to Port Blair in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. No wreckage or bodies have ever been located. 2019 is already the IAF’s worst year in a decade, with ten aircraft crashes in the first six months. These include a Mirage 2000 crash in Bengaluru in February, in which two pilots lost their lives. Days later, rehearsing for the Aero India 2019 show, two Hawk aircraft of the Surya Kiran aerobatics team collided in mid-air, killing a pilot. Later that month, a Mi-17V5 helicopter was shot down near Srinagar in what appears to be a “friendly fire” incident, killing seven persons, including one on the ground. WATCH: No survivors found at AN-32 crash site in Arunachal Pradesh