AN-32 crash has no survivors, says Indian Air Force

TIL Desk/National/NE/ IAF search teams, who reached the AN-32 crash site this morning, did not find any survivors. The families of the 13 personnel have already been informed that there are no survivors. A 15-member team of rescuers was airlifted on Wednesday close to the crash site of the IAF’s AN-32 aircraft in Arunachal Pradesh to look for possible survivors, but difficult terrain and inclement weather had hampered their progress.

The nine personnel from IAF’s mountaineering team, four from the Army and two civilian mountaineers were dispatched a day after the wreckage of the aircraft was located by an IAF Mi-17 helicopter at a height of 12,000 ft near Gatte village on the border of Siang and Shi-Yomi districts in Arunachal Pradesh following an eight-day-long, muti-agency search.

The area is thickly forested and has been receiving heavy rains since the last three days, according to local officials.  A massive search operation had been launched to look for the missing aircraft which had 13 people on board. The Russian-origin AN-32 aircraft was going from Jorhat in Assam to Menchuka advanced landing ground near the border with China on June 3 when it lost contact with ground staff at 1 pm, within 33 minutes of taking off.