A lon💯g-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft of Indian Nav🎃y was deployed on Tuesday, as part of a massive search operation to trace an AN-32 transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force, a day after it went missing around thickly-forested Menchuka in Arunachal Pradesh, officials said.
The Russian-origin transport aircra💎ft, with 13 people on board, wen🌱t missing Monday afternoon, around 33 minutes after taking off from Jorhat in Assam for Menchuka near the border with China.
Navy Spokesperson Capt. D K Sharma Sharma said the P8i aircraft took off fr๊om INS Rajali in Tamil Nadu's Arakonam around 1 PM, to join the search and res൲cue operation to trace the missing AN-32.
Already a fleet of fixed-wing aircraft and choppers were deployed to locate the🍨 missing Antonov AN-32 😼aircraft in the mountainous terrain in and around Menchuka, officials said.
They 𝓰said ground troops have also been deployed to carry out search operation.
Capt. Sh🍎ar🌊ma said the P8i aircraft will carry out search operation with electro-optical and Infra-Red sensors.
"The P8i aircraft has a ve🌌ry powerful Synthetic Aperture Radar which shall be utilized during the SAR sweeps to locate the missing @IAF_MCC #AN32," he tweeted.
The P-8I, manufactured by Boeing, is a long range maritime reconnaissance aircraft, and at present, Navy h🌞as eight of them.
The IAF on Monday said𓂃 the aircraft took off from Jorhat at 12.27 pm for the Menchuka advance landing ground in Shi-Yomi district in Arunachal Pradesh, and its last contact with the ground control was at 1 pm.
"Som🌸e ground reports were received on possible location of a cras𒊎h site. Helicopters were routed to the location, however, no wreckage has been sighted so far," the IAF said in a statement on Monday.
It said a total of eight aircrew and five passengers were oജn board the aircraft, and that the IAF is coordinating with Indian Army as well as various government and civil agencies to locate ♐the missing aircraft.
The IAF has deployed C-130J and AN-32 aircraft, besides two Mi-17 choppers while the Indian Army has pressed into service a🦂dvance light helicopters to lꦐocate the missing Antonov AN-32 aircraft.
Th💮e AN-32 is a Russian origin aircraft and the IAF currently operat🌳es a sizeable number of it. It is a twin-engine turboprop transport aircraft.
An AN-3ꦏ2 aircraft had crashed near a village in West Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh in June 2009, in which 13 defense personnel were killed.
Th🅠e aircraft had crashed over the Rinchi Hill above Heyo village, about 30 km from Mechuka advance landing ground.
In July 2016, an AN-32 aircraft went missing while taking off from Chennai for Port Blair with 2🅠9 people on board.
The aircraft could not be trace𝔍d following weeks of massive search operations covering 2,17,800 square nautical miles by multip🎐le aircraft.
Months later, an🥀 IAF court of inquiry concluded that it was unlikely that the missing personnel on board the aircraft would have survived th☂e accident.
(PTI)
