JNS: The IAF confirmed that the wreckage was spotted 16 km North of Lipo, North East of Tato at an approximate elevation of 12000 ft by IAF Mi-17 Helicopter undertaking search in the expanded search zone, wreckage of the missing AN-32, a transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force, was spotted in Arunachal Pradesh on Tuesday, eight days after it went missing on June 3.
IAF said efforts are on to establish the status of the occupants and establish survivors. “Further details will be communicated as the recovery actions progress,” the IAF said in a tweet.
A massive operation had been launched to locate the missing aircraft, which had lost contact with the ground control before it went off radar on June 3.
The Russian-made plane, which was on its way to Mechuka Advanced Landing Ground in Shi-Yomi district Arunachal Pradesh from Jorhat in Assam, went missing 33 minutes after it took off at 12.27 am.
6 officers (Wing Cdr G M Charles, Sq Ldr H Vinod, Flt Lt Mohit Garg, Sumit Mohanty, Ashish Tanwar & Rajesh Thapa) and 7 other ranks (Anoop, Sharin, K K Mishra, Pankaj Sangwan, S K Singh, Rajesh Kumar and Putali) were on board the AN-32 that was not upgraded with modern avionics. The aerial search operation for the missing plane had resumed on Monday after a gap of two days.
Wreckage of missing IAF’s AN-32 aircraft spotted in Arunachal Pradesh
