Air Force An-32 transport plane missing after taking off from Assam, search ops to continue overnight
The last contact with the aircraft -- an Antonov An-32 military transport aircraft -- was at around 1pm today
In Short
- The IAF plane was flying to a landing strip near the China border
- The plane had eight crew members and five passengers onboard
- In 2016, a An-32 aircraft had disappeared and was never found
An Indian Air Force transport aircraft has gone missing after taking off from an airbase in Assam. The last contact with the aircraft -- an Antonov An-32 military transport aircraft -- was at around 1pm today. 13 people were onboard the plane, including eight crew members and five passengers.
The Indian Air Force has deployed all available resources, including Sukhoi Su-30 combat fighter jets and C-130 Hercules special operations aircraft, to locate the aircraft.
Troops in the ground too have fanned out to hunt for the missing An-32.
In a tweet posted a few hours after the An-32 went missing, the Indian Air Force said that search operations for the missing plane will continue into the night.
The Air Force said some reports were recieved of the sighting of a possible crash site. However, those reports did not turn out to be true.
IAF is coordinating with Indian Army, various government and civil agencies to locate the missing aircraft. Search operations will continue from air and by ground parties of Indian Army through the night. 4/4 Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) June 3, 2019
The Antonov An-32 had taken off from Jorhat in Assam and was heading to the Mechuka Advanced Landing Ground, located in Mechuka Valley in Arunachal Pradesh.
The plane lost contact around 35 minutes after taking off.
The Mechuka Advanced Landing Ground is located near the China border.
In July 2016, Indian Air Force An-32 transport aircraft disappeared over the Bay of Bengal with 29 people onboard. The plane had taken off from an airbase in Chennai and was headed to Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Radar contact with the plane was lost around an hour after the An-32 took off from the Tambaram Air Force Station, Chennai.
Following the disappearance, the Indian Air Force launched what later became India's largest search operation for a missing plane over the sea. However, the aircraft was never found and search operations were called off on September 2016.
The plane was presumed to have crashed and all the people onboard were presumed dead.