Missing AN-32 aircraft: Pilot's family members meet Defence Minister Rajnath Singh

Family members of Ashish Tanwar, the pilot of IAF AN 32 aircraft, which went missing on June 3 met Defence Minister Rajnath Singh at his residence here on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, it was reported that the Indian Army has deployed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to search for the missing AN-32 transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force.The search operations for the plane, which went missing over Arunachal Pradesh, entered the fourth day on Thursday.

"Unmanned aerial vehicles were also deployed today along with the C-130Js and helicopters but so far, we have not able to locate anything. The search operations will continue through the night," a defence spokesperson said.

Later in the day, the IAF said in a tweet that Cheetah choppers have also been deployed in the search operations.

"#IAF Missing AN-32 search continues. The area of search has been expanded and more assets including smaller and more manoeuvrable helicopters like Cheetah have been included in the rescue mission so as to approach areas inaccessible by bigger helicopters or individuals on foot," the IAF tweeted.

"Search by IAF and #IndianArmy helicopters was adversely affected by localised weather in the valleys. All leads from airborne sensors including by #IndianNavy being closely assessed and followed-up with search by aircraft and ground teams. The search will continue through the night," it added.

While bad weather conditions on Wednesday had put a halt to the search operations by helicopters, two Sukhoi-30 MKI combat jets and one C 130J aircraft carried out night missions to locate the plane.

The AN-32 aircraft with 13 IAF personnel on board went missing on Monday afternoon. The plane had taken off from Assam's Jorhat and was headed for Mechuka Advance Landing Ground (ALG) in Arunachal Pradesh when it lost contact with ground authorities at around 1300 hours.Su-30MKI jets, C-130J special operations aircraft, several choppers along with ground troops were deployed to locate the plane. ISRO satellites and Indian Navy's P-8I aircraft have also been pressed into service.