No Survivors From AN-32 Crash In Arunachal Pradesh Says IAF After Rescue Team Reach Wreckage Site

All 13 people on board the ill-fated AN-32 aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) that went down in Arunachal Pradesh on June 3 were killed in the crash. IAF confirmed that there are no survivors from the crash after a team of eight members of the rescue team reached the crash site in the morning.

ANI

According to the IAF, the officers who lost their lives are W/C GM Charles, S/L H Vinod, F/L R Thapa, F/L A Tanwar, F/L S Mohanty, F/L MK Garg, WO KK Mishra, Sgt Anoop Kumar, Cpl Sherin, LAC SK Singh, LAC Pankaj, NC(E) Putali and NC(E) Rajesh Kumar.

Following air-warriors lost their life in the tragic #An32 crash - W/C GM Charles, S/L H Vinod, F/L R Thapa, F/L A Tanwar, F/L S Mohanty, F/L MK Garg, WO KK Mishra, Sgt Anoop Kumar, Cpl Sherin, LAC SK Singh, LAC Pankaj, NC(E) Putali & NC(E) Rajesh Kumar.

¡ª Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) June 13, 2019

Earlier, A 15-member rescue team was airdropped on the crash site on Wednesday to look for possible survivors but extremely difficult terrain and bad weather had delayed progress.

The An-32, which took off from Assam¡¯s Jorhat base around 12.30 pm on June 3, never reached the Mechuka Advanced Landing Ground in Shi Yomi district.

Even though a search operation was launched hours after it went missing the location of the crash was identified only on Tuesday. Due to the inaccessible terrain, the search team had to be airdropped and then trek on foot to reach the crash site.

The Russian-made carrier is the 10th IAF aircraft that has crashed this year.

REUTERS/ FILE

Another AN-32 of the IAF had disappeared under similar circumstances in 2016 over the Bay of Bengal. The twin-engine turboprop transport aircraft was en route from Tambaram Air Force Station in the city of Chennai to Andaman and Nicobar Islands with 29 people on board. Despite a massive search operation, the missing flight was never recovered all on board were presumed dead.