Debris of the An-32 transport military plane were found 8 days after it went off the radar. India used its remote sensing satellites, P-8I spy planes and ground forces to find the missing plane.
The plane took off at 12.25 local time (06.55 GMT) on 3 June and headed to the neighboring state of Arunachal Pradesh, where an hour later it was supposed to land at a military airfield near the village of Mechuka.
There were no survivors of a military transport plane crash last week in a mountainous area near the border with China, Indian authorities said on Thursday.
A team of rescuers airlifted to a place lower on the mountain in Arunachal Pradesh, India's northeastern-most state, climbed up to the crash site on foot early on Thursday and confirmed that none of the 13 people on board were alive, the Indian air force said on Twitter. “Our rescue team reached the site at an elevation of 12,000 feet this morning and did not find survivors,” said Indian Air Force Wing Commander Ratnakar Singh.
The AN-32 plane with five Indian air force officers and eight people of other ranks lost ground contact on June 3 on its way to a high-altitude airstrip in Mechuka, 29 kilometres from the Chinese border.
Even after deploying satellites and sensitive radars, it took nine days for air force and navy personnel to locate the wreckage because of the remoteness of the heavily forested area.
The air force released a photo of a charred patch of land on a steep slope covered with evergreen trees, leading to speculation that the plane crashed just below the summit. Officials have not said what caused the crash.
However, the connection with the aircraft was then lost.On the same day, the Indian military, together with government and civilian structures, launched a large-scale search operation. The country's air and ground forces.An Indian air force aircraft with 13 people on board went missing on Monday in remote northeastern mountains bordering China, government officials said.The AN-32 aircraft, which is typically used for transport, took off from Assam state’s Jorhat town for Menchuka in Arunachal Pradesh state but lost contact with ground agencies at around 1 p.m. (0730 GMT).“Since the aircraft did not reach the airfield, overdue action was initiated,” said one government official.“A total of eight crew and five passengers were on board.”The air force had begun a search, including deploying a Sukhoi combat jet, another government official said.Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, who assumed charge of the ministry last week, said he was in touch with senior air force officials.“I pray for the safety of all passengers on board,” he said on Twitter.
An Indian military transport plane went missing near the border with China a week ago and air searches, satellite surveys and efforts to pick up signals from the plane have all failed.While Indian authorities on Saturday offered a cash reward to boost a desperate hunt for the missing aircraft feared to have crashed in a remote northeastern state, an Indian TV channel has offered a bizarre explanation for plane's disappearance.According to the Hindi language channel, aliens could have taken away the aircraft since all the efforts to find the plane has failed.
