The Indian Air Force has denied media reports which claimed that the wreckage of IAF aircraft that went missing after taking off from Jorhat on Monday afternoon had been sighted. The official Twitter handle of IAF said that the while they have some reports of possible crash sites, the wreckage of the plane had not been found yet.
Earlier, media reports had reported that the aircraft's remains had been spotted at Payum in Arunachal Pradesh's West Siang district.
IAF added that it was coordinating with Indian army and civic agencies, and that search operations would continue through the night.
C-130J, AN-32 and Mi-17 of IAF and Indian Army ALH helicopter launched to locate the missing aircraft. 2/4
— Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) June 3, 2019
IAF is coordinating with Indian Army, various government and civil agencies to locate the missing aircraft. Search operations will continue from air and by ground parties of Indian Army through the night. 4/4
— Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) June 3, 2019
According to reports, the plane left at 12.25 pm from Jorhat for Mechuka Advanced Landing Ground in Arunachal Pradesh. However, the aircraft did not reach its destination.
There were eight crew members and five passengers on board. IAF has initiated a search for the aircraft as well. According to news agency ANI, a Sukhoi-30 combat aircraft and C-130 Special Ops aircraft were deployed to search for the missing Antonov AN-32 military transport aircraft.
The missing aircraft had last contacted ground sources at 1 pm.
A decade ago, a similar mishap had occured in June 2009 when an IAF plane was found crashed at Rinchi Hill in West Siang district, about 30 km from Mechuka landing ground. An aircraft from a squadron in Jorhat was on a regular sortie for air maintenance of troops from Mechuka and was on its way to Mohanbari airbase in Assam when it lost contact. None of the 13 defence personnel who were on board then survived.
In July 2016, another similar incident had happened when an Antonov AN-32 IAF aircraft disappeared while flying over the Bay of Bengal. It was going from Tambaram Air Force Station in Chennai to Port Blair, the capital of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. There were 29 people on board – 11 IAF personnel, two soldiers from the Indian army, six crew, and eight defence civilians with the Naval Armament Depot.
The search and rescue for the aircraft was one of the largest such operation that India had undertaken. The operation was unsuccessful in finding the missing plane and was called off in September that year. The people on board were presumed dead.
(This story has been updated.)