The wreckage of an IAF aircraft, which went missing eight days ago with 13 people on board, was found Tuesday in Lipo locality of Arunachal Pradesh.
The location of the wreckage of aircraft is 15-20 kilometres north of the flight path of the AN-32 aircraft in Arunachal Pradesh.
The AN-32 aircraft took off from Jorhat at 12.27 pm for the Menchuka advance landing ground and its last contact with the ground control was at 1 pm. A total of eight aircrew and five passengers were on board the aircraft.
The IAF had launched a massive search operation in and around Menchuka hours after the aircraft went missing.
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The IAF on Saturday announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh to anyone providing information about location of the AN-32 transport aircraft.
On Saturday, Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa reviewed the overall search operation at a high-level meeting in Assam's Jorhat air base. He also interacted with families of the officers and airmen who were on board the aircraft.
The assets deployed for the operation included Sukhoi-30 aircraft in addition to a fleet of C-130J and AN-32 planes and Mi-17 and ALH helicopters. The ground forces included troops from the Army, Indo Tibetan Border Police and state police.
The Indian Navy's P-8I aircraft was deployed earlier this week as it has electro-optical and infra-red sensors which could be helpful in the search operation.
IAF officials had said ISRO's Cartosat and RISAT satellites are taking images of the area around Menchuka to help the rescuers find the plane.
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The AN-32 aircraft took off from Jorhat at 12.27 pm for the Menchuka advance landing ground and its last contact with the ground control was at 1 pm. A total of eight aircrew and five passengers were on board the aircraft.
The AN-32 is a Russian origin aircraft and the IAF currently operates a sizeable number of it. It is a twin-engine turboprop transport aircraft.
(With inputs from Agencies)
