AN-32 aircraft crash no survivors all 13 persons on board dead

The An-32 that was on its way to an advanced landing ground at Mechuka in Arunachal Pradesh’s West Siang district crashed. It was about 15 km from the Line of Actual Control and carried around thirteen military personnel. It had lost contact with the ground control in about 30 minutes after taking off from Jorhat in Assam.

The aircraft was equipped with an emergency locator transmitter, an emergency beacon in the cargo section that can broadcast distress signals to reveal the location of an aircraft. But no signal came from this device. The Indian AirForce who had airdropped 15 mountaineers for rescue operations has revealed the sad news through a series of tweets. They confirmed that there are no survivors.

#Update on #An32 crash: Eight members of the rescue team have reached the crash site today morning. IAF is sad to inform that there are no survivors from the crash of An32.

— Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) June 13, 2019

They further added that the families of the deceased have been informed. They also tweeted the names of the deceased.

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.

— Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) June 13, 2019

IAF Pays tribute to the brave Air-warriors who lost their life during the #An32 crash on 03 Jun 2019 and stands by with the families of the victims. May their soul rest in peace.

— Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) June 13, 2019

The AN 32 plane, is a Soviet-designed twin-engine turboprop transport aircraft. It had gone missing around 1 pm on June 3 while flying from Assam’s Jorhat to Mechuka, a military landing strip in Arunachal Pradesh. It was meant to be a 50-minute journey. The wreckage was found on Tuesday in the mountains at a height of around 12,000 feet. It was apparent that the An-32 had crashed into a mountain amid bad weather and poor visibility because of clouds.

For a week, relatives of the 13 personnel were positioned at a Jorhat base camp as they waited for news. The search operation was hampered because of the terrain, incessant rain and lack of roads.

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