Crashed IAF plane’s wreckage found

The Indian Air Force (IAF) found on Wednesday afternoon the wreckage of its transport plane that crashed in Arunachal Pradesh’s West Siang district on Tuesday with 14 military personnel on board.

IAF said all on board the AN-32 aircraft were dead. The wreckage was found on a mountainous terrain, 50 km east of the Machuka airstrip near Rinchi hill, close to the China border, from where it had taken off. Air Force sources said the accident may have happened because of extreme bad weather.

The plane was piloted by Wing Commander GS Butalia. Wing Commander PK Shaji was the navigator.

The wreckage was located by a team of army and border police. The Air Force said AN-32 lost contact with the local military air traffic control as soon as it took off from Machuka, an advanced landing ground, one of the eight handed over to the ministry of defence on Tuesday by the state government. The plane was on a routine sortie.

AN-32, the workhorse of IAF, is rugged but has a very high safety record. The last time an AN-32 crashed was in New Delhi in 1999, killing 21 on board. The Russian medium-lift transport aircraft are used for ferrying personnel and cargo.