NEW DELHI – The Indian Air Force said on Wednesday it had expanded the areaof search for the An-32 aircraft that had taken off with 13 people aboardfrom the city of Jorhat on Monday and went missing.
“#IAF has intensified efforts to locate the missing AN-32. Despitechallenges posed by vegetation, inhospitable terrain & poor weather,thesearch has been expanded,” the air force said on Twitter.
According to the Indian Air Force, helicopter flights of the search andrescue mission on Wednesday were significantly hampered by adverse weatherconditions, but the ground forces intend to continue the searches for theaircraft even at night.
The plane took off at 12.25 local time (06.55 GMT) on Monday and headed tothe neighboring state of Arunachal Pradesh, where an hour later it wassupposed to land at a military airfield near the village of Mechuka.However, the connection with the aircraft was then lost.
On the same day, the Indian military, together with government and civilianstructures, launched a large-scale search operation. The country’s air andground forces, navy and even space satellites are involved in the searches.