All 13 people on board the AN-32 aircraft, which crashed in Arunachal Pradesh, are dead, the Indian Air Force said, after a team of rescuers searched the wreckage of the plane in heavily forested mountainous terrain on Thursday.
An IAF official said there were no survivors from the crash of the AN-32 aircraft.
"IAF pays tribute to the brave Air-warriors who lost their life during the #An32 crash on 03 Jun 2019 and stands by with the families of the victims. May their soul rest in peace," the Indian Air Force (IAF) spokesperson tweeted.
Those who died in the crash are Wing Commander G.M. Charles; Squadron Leader H. Vinod; Flight Lieutenants L.R. Thapa, M.K. Garg, Ashish Tanwar and Sumit Mohanty; Warrant Officer K.K. Mishra; Sergeant Anoop Kumar; Corporal Sherin; LACs (Leading Aircraft Man) S K Singh and LAC Pankaj and non-combatants Rajesh Kumar and Putali.
The Russian-origin AN-32 aircraft was going from Jorhat in Assam to Menchuka advanced landing ground near the border with China on June 3 when it lost contact around half-an-hour after taking off.
The wreckage of the plane was spotted by an Indian Air Force helicopter on Tuesday at a height of 12,000ft near Gatte village on the border of Siang and Shi-Yomi districts, after eight days of a massive search operation involving a fleet of aircraft and helicopters as well as ground forces.
A 15-member team of rescuers was sent to look for survivors in the accident on Wednesday and eight of them reached the crash site on Thursday morning, an IAF official said.
