: A massive search operation was underway on Tuesday to locate aRussian-origin AN-32 transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force, a day after itwent missing around Menchuka in Arunachal Pradesh, officials said.
The aircraft,with 13 people on board, went missing Monday afternoon around 33 minutes aftertaking off from Jorhat in Assam for Menchuka near the border with China.
A fleet of fixed wing aircraft and choppershave been deployed to locate the missing Antonov AN-32 aircraft, officialssaid.
They said ground troops have also beendeployed to carry out search operation in the mountainous terrain in theregion.
The IAF said the aircraft took off fromJorhat 12.27 pm for the Menchuka advance landing ground in Shi-Yomi district inArunachal Pradesh, and its last contact with the ground control was at 1 pm.
“Some ground reports were received onpossible location of a crash site. Helicopters were routed to the location,however, no wreckage has been sighted so far,” the IAF said in a statementon Monday.
It said a total of eight aircrew and fivepassengers were on board the aircraft and the IAF is coordinating with IndianArmy as well as various government and civil agencies to locate it.
The IAF has deployed C-130J and AN-32aircraft besides two Mi-17 choppers while the Indian Army has pressed intoservice advance light helicopters to locate the missing Antonov AN-32 aircraft.
The AN-32 is a Russian origin aircraft andthe IAF currently operates a sizeable number of it. It is a twin engineturboprop transport aircraft.
An AN-32 aircraft had crashed near a villagein West Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh in June 2009 in which 13 defencepersonnel were killed.
The aircraft had crashed over the RinchiHill above Heyo village, about 30 km from Mechuka advance landing ground.
In July 2016, an AN-32 aircraft went missingwhile taking off from Chennai for Port Blair with 29 people on board.
The aircraft could not be traced followingweeks of massive search operations covering 2,17,800 square nautical miles bymultiple aircraft.Monthslater, an IAF court of inquiry concluded that it was unlikely that the missingpersonnel on board the aircraft would have survived the accident.