Shillong: IAF, Army team airlifted to location close to An-32 crash site

A team of army and civil mountaineers have been airlifted on Wednesday to a location close to the place of crash of the missing AN-32 aircraft, a day after the crash site was located by the Indian Air Force.

Air marshal R D Mathur, Air Officer commanding in chief of Eastern Air Command, on Wednesday complimented the search team for their relentless effort spanning eight days in searching for the aircraft.

Mathur also thanked the state administration led by Chief Minister Pema Khandu for extending unflinching support to the IAF towards locating the missing An-32.

"The proud and highly patriotic people of the state have worked tirelessly to help the IAF for a national cause", he had said.

As of today, Indian Air Force (IAF) has continued search operation in the area where wreckage of missing AN-32 aircraft was found yesterday.

The AN-32, with 13 personnel onboard had last contacted ground sources from Arunachal Pradesh on June 3. The plane had been missing since June 3 after taking off from Jorhat air base in Assam to Menchuka advanced landing ground in Arunachal Pradesh with 13 persons on board.

After an extensive search for eight days, the wreckage of the aircraft was located earlier today by the crew of a Mi-17 V5 chopper in a valley in Arunachal Pradesh.

Mi-17s and Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH) of the Indian Army were deployed for the search and rescue operation of 13 personnel on board the Indian Air Force's AN-32.