IAF plane with 14 people goes missing, crash feared

An Indian Air Force plane carrying eight IAF personnel and six civilians went missing today over the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh and is feared to have crashed, says an IAF spokesman. An aerial search operation over the dense forests and mountains of Arunachal Pradesh bordering Bhutan where the plane might have crashed was carried out, but neither the wreckage nor bodies could be located.

A transport plane of Indian Air Force carrying eight IAF personnel and six civilians went missing on Tuesday over the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh and is feared to have crashed, an IAF spokesman said in Shillong.

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The AN-32 plane had flown from Dibrugarh in Assam to Mechuka in Arunachal from where it took off again with the civilians for Jorhat at around 2 pm, after which the aircraft went missing, said IAF spokesman Wing Commander P Sahu.

He said the plane was feared to have crashed.

The six civilians were being ferried as part of the IAF plane's regular sortie.

An aerial search operation over the dense forests and mountains of Arunachal Pradesh bordering Bhutan where the plane might have crashed was carried out, but neither the wreckage nor bodies could be located, Sahu said.

The search would resume on Wednesday and Army and paramilitary personnel in the area have been put on alert.