AN-32 crash: Six bodies retrieved

Pic courtesy/Twitter/Akash Rai

New Delhi: Bodies of six Air Force personnel and remains of seven others, who died in the AN-32 aircraft crash, have been recovered, official sources stated on Thursday. Over the past week, the Indian Air Force was making efforts to retrieve the bodies of the victims from the crash site but inclement weather was making it difficult to carry out air operations. The aircraft had gone missing on June 3 and the wreckage was located on June 11.

The wreckage of the AN-32 aircraft of the Indian Air Force was spotted 16 km north of Lipo in Arunachal Pradesh, eight days after it went missing after taking off from Assam's Jorhat. The aircraft had 13 people on board and the IAF said efforts are on to establish the status of the occupants. "The wreckage of the aircraft was spotted today 16 kms north of Lipo, north east of Tato at an approximate elevation of 12,000 ft by the IAF Mi-17 helicopter undertaking search in the expanded search zone," the IAF said in a statement.

The IAF launched a massive operation to trace the missing aircraft but the search was badly hit by poor weather conditions. The assets deployed for the operation included Sukhoi-30 aircraft in addition to a fleet of C-130J and AN-32 planes and Mi-17 and ALH helicopters. The ground forces included troops from the Army, Indo Tibetan Border Police and state police. ISRO's Cartosat and RISAT satellites were also used to take images of the area around Menchuka.

With inputs from PTI

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