IAF An-32 aircraft carrying 13 missing; Rajnath Singh apprised of situation

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday talked to Vice Chief of the Indian Air Force (IAF), Air Marshal Rakesh Singh Bhadauria regarding the missing IAF An-32 aircraft. Singh was apprised of the situation and the steps taken by the IAF to find the missing aircraft.

"Spoke to Vice Chief of @IAF_MCC, Air Marshal Rakesh Singh Bhadauria regarding the missing IAF AN-32 Aircraft which is overdue for some hours," Singh tweeted.

"He has apprised me of the steps taken by the IAF to find the missing aircraft. I pray for the safety of all passengers on board," he added.

An Indian Air Force An-32 transport aircraft with 13 personnel including seven officers and six air warriors on board went missing on Monday afternoon in Arunachal Pradesh after getting air-borne from Assam's Jorhat.

The aircraft took off from Jorhat at 1225 hours and was headed for Menchuka Advance Landing Ground (ALG) in Arunachal Pradesh. The last contact between the aircraft and ground agencies took place at 1300 hours.

Indian Air Force has deployed all available resources including Sukhoi-30 combat aircraft and C-130 Special Operations aircraft on a search mission for locating the missing IAF AN-32.

The IAF has also launched ground troops for locating the aircraft and the personnel on board.

The Soviet-era aircraft was inducted into the Air Force in the 1980s and have been undergoing upgrades. The missing plane is not part of the upgraded An-32 fleet of the Air Force.

Three years ago, on July 22, 2016, an An-32 aircraft of the IAF had gone missing in the air with 29 people on board. The aircraft was traveling from Chennai to Port-Blair in Andaman and Nicobar when it went missing over the Bay of Bengal.