Indian Air Force Plane missing with 12 onboard

Assam · June 9, 2009

An Indian Air Force transport aircraft with 12 persons onboard went missing after taking off from Mechuka in West Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh on Tuesday. The plane was feared to have crashed and search operation is on in search of wreckage or bodies.

IAF_AN-32 The Russia-made AN 32 aircraft, on a routine air maintenance sortie, took off from Mechuka at around 2:00 p.m. for Jorhat in Assam after which it went missing, a spokesman at the Eastern Air Command said. The plane, belonging to Jorhat air base, had taken off from Mohanbari in Assam’s Dibrugarh district.

The plane was carrying six Indian Air Force personnel and six civilians. The identity of the crew and other passengers were not disclosed but the spokesman said the air crew was led by a wing commander.

The Indian Air Force conducted an aerial search operation over the dense forests and mountains of Arunachal Pradesh where the aircraft might have crashed. But the search could not be carried out for long today because of bad weather. Search operation will resume today and the Army and paramilitary forces on the ground in the area have also been alerted.

The AN-32 is the workhorse of the Indian Air Force transport fleet, traveling to far off bases to deliver much-needed supplies to soldiers. This is the first crash of an AN-32 in about a decade.

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Category: Assam, News | Tags: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, India, Indian Air Force, News