IAF plane crash near China border-Officers Killed

A transport plane of the Indian Air Force with at least 14 people on board which went missing over the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh on Tuesday, Jun 9 is feared to have crashed. IAF AN-32 aircraft with eight IAF personnel and six civilians took off from Menchuka in Arunachal Pradesh and went missing shortly after.

"The AN-32 was on a regular air maintenance sortie to Machuka from Jorhat. It has gone missing. Search operations are in progress. I cannot say anything more,'' said a senior officer in the Air Headquarters in New Delhi.

Though the senior officer said he would not speculate on the reasons behind the crash, initial reports hold there was "some bad weather'' in the very hilly terrain in the region.

There is apprehension the aircraft crashed somewhere in the dense jungles of Arunachal Pradesh. "There could be the possibility of a technical snag also since the weather at Machuka was not too bad during the take-off. It is true that the weather packs up very fast at Machuka but the AN-32 had landed there quite safely at around 1 pm,'' said the officer.

Machuka, a Buddhist settlement, is a few days drive from the nearest large town and the Army base there is maintained by air. Due to high altitude, transport aircraft cannot land there with a full load. Not only is the weather unpredictable, the landing strip is also quite small, taxing the resources of the pilot and his machine.

The control tower of the ALG consists of a tent and a corrugated hut. There have been many incidents when an aircraft, after landing there, has had to remain there for days till the weather sufficiently improved.

Indian Air Force acquired the Russian made transport aircraft in 1980s. It is considered a safe aircraft. The last crash involving an AN-32 was at Delhi in 1999.
The IAF spokesperson refused to divulge the details of the crew on board. But there are reports that the crew comprised of some senior including squadron leaders.

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