Six bodies retrieved from AN-32 aircraft crash site
Itanagar, Jun. 20 (HS): Six bodies and the remains of seven crew members aboard the Indian Air Force’s An-32 transport aircraft which crashed in Arunachal Pradesh on June 3 have been recovered from the crash site.
A spokesperson of the IAF informed in Shillong on Thursday.
The An-32 took off from Jorhat in Assam on June 3 and was on its way to an advanced landing ground at Mechuka in Arunachal Pradesh’s Shi Yomi district when it lost contact with ground control.
A search team spotted the wreckage of the aircraft last week at a remote mountainous region of Arunachal Pradesh, eight days after it disappeared from radar screens and triggered frantic efforts by IAF and the army to locate the Soviet-origin aircraft.
A rescue team had recovered the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) of the Russian-origin aircraft at the crash site on Friday last.
Bad weather hampered helicopters from performing winching operations which are mandatory for all the rescue operations and recovery of mortal remains, the official said.
The crash site was a thickly forested mountain slope at an approximate altitude of 12,000 feet.
A mountaineering team trekked to the crash spot after being air dropped at a nearby location after two failed attempts. However, as clouds and rain disrupted chopper flight another team of 20 men including 11 porters was dispatched to the crash site on Sunday and arrived at the crash site on Wednesday.
