By Bhupen Goswami

Guwahati : Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has been apprised of the situation by the Air Force. The Antonov AN-32 with 13 personnel including seven officers and six air warriors on board went missing in Arunachal Pradesh after taking off from Assam’s Jorhat.Search operation for missing Indian Air Force AN-32 was disrupted due to rain and bad weather condition. However, it is likely to resume today.  The AN-32 Transporter aircraft of Indian Air Force went missing at Arunachal Pradesh on June 3. The aircraft took off at around 1 pm from Jorhat district in Assam with 13 defence personnel. Meanwhile missing IAF AN-32 aircraft’s pilot Ashish Tanwar’s father has arrived Assam to meet the authorities and get updates. When the flight took off from the base at 12.25 pm on Monday for the advanced landing ground at Mechuka in Arunachal Pradesh, Ashish’s wife Sandhya was on duty at the IAF Air Traffic Control at Jorhat in Assam.  It is learnt that the news has left Ashish’s mother shattered and she is barely able to speak. Initially, the family members were hopeful that the aircraft might have managed to make an emergency landing and those on board would contact the authorities. But as the time passes the family members are gradually becoming frustrated. None of the family members could imagine something like this would happen to Ashish. Ashish studied in different Kendriya Vidyalayas and went on to complete B.Tech.

He took up a job with an MNC in Gurgaon for a brief period before joining the IAF in December 2013.  In May 2015, after completing training, Ashish moved to Jorhat, where Sandhya, who hails from Mathura, joined him last year. The couple got married in February 2018, and the match was arranged by their parents.Two Mi-17 aircrafts of the Indian Air Force and ALH helicopters of the Indian Army have been pressed into service to locate the missing aircraft. The AN-32 Transporter aircraft of Indian Air Force went missing at Arunachal Pradesh on June 3. The aircraft took off at around 1 pm from Jorhat district in Assam with 13 defence personnel. Although the Air Force transport plane was expected to land at 1:30 pm at Mechuka in Arunachal Pradesh on June 3, there was no communication with the aircraft for many hours. According to reports, the missing plane was last seen at the Shi Yomi district. Around 13 people were reportedly onboard the transporter aircraft.Meanwhile, ISRO satellites were deployed along with naval P-8I maritime surveillance aircraft to locate the wreckage of the missing AN-32 aircraft, which went missing three days ago with 13 IAF personnel on board. “Satellites of the ISRO and other agencies have been pressed into service over parts of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam to locate the missing An-32 transport aircraft with 13 people on board. Su-30MKI, C-130J Super Hercules and other assets continuing search operations in cloudy weather,” sources in IAF said here.

The Navy said that its long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft P-8I took off from INS Rajali in Arakonam, Tamil Nadu for joining the search and rescue operation. Officials said the wreckage of the AN-32 transport aircraft which went missing on Monday in Arunachal Pradesh has not been located yet. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has been apprised of the situation by the Air Force. The Antonov AN-32 with 13 personnel including seven officers and six air warriors on board went missing in Arunachal Pradesh after taking off from Assam’s Jorhat. The aircraft took off from Jorhat at 12:25 pm and headed for Menchuka Advance Landing Ground (ALG) in Arunachal Pradesh near China border. The last contact between the aircraft and ground agencies took place at 1 pm. The Soviet-era aircraft was inducted in the Indian Air Force in the 1980s and has been undergoing upgrades. The missing plane is not part of the upgraded AN-32 fleet of the Indian Air Force. Three years ago, on July 22, 2016, an airborne AN-32 aircraft had gone missing with 29 people on board. The aircraft was travelling from Chennai to Port-Blair in Andaman and Nicobar when it went missing over the Bay of Bengal.