Search teams made no headway in locating a Soviet-origin Antonov-32 military transport plane, two days after it went missing in Arunachal Pradesh with 13 men onboard, two defence officials. Search efforts by air and ground teams continued but they found no trace of the aircraft.
Two Sukhoi-30s, two C-130Js, two Mi-17s and two advanced light helicopters have were deployed on Wednesday to locate the aircraft, said an IAF spokesperson, one of the officials cited above. “This is in addition to the ground party with teams of army, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, local police and other agencies which are involved in search and rescue from day one,” he added.
The Indian Navy on Tuesday flew a P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft from Tamil Nadu to supplement the search effort. The plane was, however, not involved in the search effort on Wednesday.
The AN-32 had taken off from Jorhat in Assam and was on its way to an advanced landing ground at Mechuka in Arunachal Pradesh when it vanished from the radar. IAF officials said that the AN-32 is equipped with an emergency locator transmitter, an emergency beacon that can broadcast distress signals. No signal has been detected yet.