The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Wednesday began aerial reconnaissance to trace the transport aircraft with 13 on board that went missing over the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh and was feared to have crashed.

The transport aircraft, AN 32, was on a routine air maintenance sortie and was carrying 13 personnel, including seven IAF personnel and six army jawans when it went missing last evening, an IAF spokesman said. IAF helicopters were scouting the Mechuka-Jorhat route from where the aircraft went missing.