Tribune news Service
New Delhi, June 10
A week after the Russian-origin AN-32 transport plane of the Indian Air Force (IAF) went missing, there has been no trace of the plane that is believed to have gone down in an uninhabited parts of Arunachal Pradesh.
These parts are in dense jungle where the foliage is so thick that no human has ventured there. There is a total lack of any habitation and bad weather is making it tough for the plane or any sign of it being located.
Today also the latest gadgetry installed under surveillance planes could not locate anything. These are high resolution cameras capable of carrying high-resolution photography from the sky, but to no avail so far.
Notably the locating beacon on the AN-32 has not helped. The beacon automatically emits a radio signal and so far no radio signal has been captured. If the plane has fallen in a valley, the radio beacon signal would be restricted in valley since it has dense foliage.
The search area is now spread across 2,500 sq km. Teams of the Army and ITBP on the aircraft lost contact on June 3 afternoon after taking off from Jorhat in Assam for Mechuka, an advanced landing ground in Arunachal Pradesh, near the border with China. Mechuka is also the headquarters of Shi-Yomi district of Arunachal Pradesh. A total of eight crew and five passengers were on board the plane.
The IAF has pressed in specialised planes that are capable of picking up objects even during the night. Today, three Mi-17 and three Dhruv copters were pressed into service. An Army UAV and the SU-30 MKI, capable of high-speed photography, were used. The Navy’s long-range surveillance plane, P8I, was also used.
The IAF on Saturday announced a Rs 5 lakh award for information on location of the missing plane.
from The Tribune http://bit.ly/2Wuhyp4
via Today’s News Headlines
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