The Indian Air Force has announced that six bodies and mortal remains of seven people have been recovered from the site in Arunachal Pradesh, where an Indian Air Force An-32 aircraft crashed in the mountains.
After the wreckage was discovered by a Mi-17 helicopter on June 11, at a height of 12,000 ft near Gatte village on the border of Siang and Shi-Yomi districts, massive search operations were undertaken to search for the bodies or possible survivors. The IAF has ordered a court of inquiry into the accident, terming it one of the worst involving a military aircraft in recent years.
Thirteen IAF personnel were on the aircraft when the unfortunate event occurred.
The plane, a Soviet-designed twin engine turboprop transport aircraft, had vanished from the radar around 1 pm on June 3 while flying from Assam’s Jorhat to Mechuka, a military landing strip in Arunachal. The plane could have crashed into a mountain, because of bad weather and poor visibility.
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Unfortunately, there were no survivors post the air crash. The bodies and the remains will be taken to the Air Force base in Jorhat.
The aircraft’s all-important cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and the flight data recorder or the black box were recovered last week.
Those killed in the crash were identified as Wing Commander GM Charles, Squadron Leader H Vinod, Flight Lieutenant MK Garg, Flight Lieutenant S Mohanty, Flight Lieutenant A Tanwar, Flight Lieutenant R Thapa, Warrant Officer KK Mishra, Sergeant Anoop Kumar, Corporal Sherin, Leading Aircraftman SK Singh and Leading Aircraftman Pankaj.