Guwahati: The Indian Air Force on Thursday announced that there was no survivor in the June 3 crash of AN-32 aircraft in the frontier state of Arunachal Pradesh.
The announcement of the IAF came soon after a 15-member search team of mountaineers reached the crash site at the height of 12,000 feet near Gatte village on the border of Siang and Shi-Yomi districts in Arunachal Pradesh.
“IAF is sad to inform that there are no survivors from the crash of AN-32,” the air force said in a string of tweets to “pay tribute to the brave air-warriors who lost their life” in the crash.
The IAF also identified the air warriors who died in the crash: Wing Commander GM Charles, Squadron Leader H Vinod, Flight Lieutenants R Thapa, Ashish Tanwar, S Mohanty and Mohit K Garg, Warrant Officer KK Mishra, Sergeant Anoop Kumar, Corporal Sherin, Leading Air Craftsman SK Singh and Pankaj and two non combatant enrolled employees Putali and Rajesh Kumar.
The AN-32 was on its way to an advanced landing ground at Mechuka in Arunachal Pradesh’s West Siang district — about 15 km from the Line of Actual Control, the disputed border with China — when it lost contact with ground control in about 30 minutes after taking off from Jorhat in Assam. The search efforts were hampered by bad weather.
