IAF’s aircraft with 13 people on board missing

An AN-32 transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) with 13 people on board has lost contact with ground agencies around 35 minutes after taking off from Jorhat in Assam today, official sources said.

The plane got airborne around 12:25 pm Indian time and lost all contacts with ground staff at around 1:00 pm, they said adding a total of eight crew and five passengers were on board the aircraft.

The Indian Air Force has deployed all available resources to locate the aircraft, said the sources.

The Air Force has launched a search operation to track down the plane.

The terrain under the plane's route is dotted with mountains and dense forests.

The An-32 is a Russian-designed twin-engine turboprop transport aircraft is being used extensively by the Indian Air Force for over four decades.

In 2016, an Indian Air Force An-32 aircraft disappeared while flying over the Bay of Bengal after taking off from Chennai for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. That plane was never found.