All 13 Bodies, Black Box of IAF’s AN-32 Retrieved: Key Highlights

The wreckage of the AN-32 transport aircraft missing since 3 June was located by the IAF on Tuesday, 11 June.

The wreckage of the AN-32 transport aircraft missing since 3 June was located by the IAF on 11 June.

(Photo: The Quint)

After an extensive search, the black box of the ill-fated IAF aircraft AN-32, along with all 13 bodies were recovered on Thursday, 13 June.

The Indian Air Force also confirmed that there we no survivors at the crash site, located 16 kilometres north of Lipo village in Arunachal Pradesh.

Choppers will be deployed to ferry the bodies from the crash site in Arunachal Pradesh, ANI reported.

The wreckage of the missing AN-32 transport aircraft was located eight days after it had gone missing soon after taking off from Air Force base in Assam’s Jorhat on 3 June.

Here’s everything that has happened so far in chronological order:

• The IAF’s AN-32 aircraft went missing around the remote Mechuka area with 13 persons onboard. The aircraft took off from Jorhat airbase at 12:25 pm on 3 June and last made contact with ground sources at 1 pm that day.
• A total of eight aircrew and five passengers were on board. Among them was Ashish Tanwar, the pilot, whose wife Sandhya was on IAF Air Traffic Control duty in Assam’s Jorhat at the time.
• Soon after the AN-32 went missing, the IAF launched Sukhoi-30 combat aircraft and C-130 Special Ops aircraft on a search mission to locate the aircraft. Ground patrols of the Army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) were also involved in the search operations.
• ISRO satellites were pressed into service over parts of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in the search, while a long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft of the Indian Navy was also deployed.
• An AN-32 had gone missing over the Bay of Bengal after leaving for Port Blair from Chennai back in July 2016. With the same kind of aircraft going missing again, the Congress questioned the government about why it had not allocated resources to replace the obsolete AN-32 fleet. The AN-32 is Russian-made, a twin-engine turboprop transport aircraft that the IAF currently operates a sizeable number of.
• As the search continued, the Army deployed its UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), while the IAF’s Mi-17 choppers and other aircraft were already being used.
• To get better imagery on the ground, the IAF on 7 June deployed Aviation Research Centre’s Global 5000 surveillance aircraft and NTRO spy satellites along with other assets to locate the missing aircraft.
• On 8 June, Air Marshal RD Mathur, AOC-in-C, Eastern Air Command, announced a cash award of Rs 5 lakh for the person(s) or group providing credible information on its whereabouts.
• The search has been severely hindered by the nature of the mountainous area, which is heavily forested with thick undergrowth. Combined with inclement weather and frequent rain, the aerial searched operations faced serious challenges.
• After the wreckage’s discovery, what was previously a ‘reconnaissance and surveillance operation’ has now become a 'localised rescue operation', Defence PRO Lt Col P Khongsai told The Quint. He said paratroopers will likely be airdropped nearby since the area is remote. Only then can the status of the 13 personnel on board be confirmed.
• The rescue team, on Wednesday, 12 June, failed to reach the crash site due to bad weather.
• The IAF, on Thursday, 13 June, said that there were no survivors found at the IAF AN-32 crash site, after the rescue team managed to reach the site. The IAF further paid tribute to the warriors who lost their lives in the crash.
• W/C GM Charles, S/L H Vinod, F/L R Thapa, F/L A Tanwar, F/L S Mohanty, F/L MK Garg, WO KK Mishra, Sgt Anoop Kumar, Cpl Sherin, LAC SK Singh, LAC Pankaj, NC(E) Putali and NC(E) Rajesh Kumar were the 13 people who lost their lives in the unfortunate incident.