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New Delhi, Delhi, India
Group captain and Indian Air Force's spokesperson Anupam Banerjee on Tuesday said that while the Navy and the Army personnel are using "all means" to conduct the search operation for the missing AN-32 aircraft, the mission remains a difficult one because of the terrain.
"Today P-8I aircraft of Navy also joined in search op. Army personnel are doing the ground search and joined in with ALH Helicopter. Navy joined at P-8I. Local police and admin are helping the Air Force to locate the aircraft," Banerjee said.
He added that the thick vegetation at the spot is also making the search operation a difficult one.
"It's a little difficult terrain to carry out search op because there's thick vegetation. It is a difficult op however we are using all our means, the electronic means, the electro-optical means. After analysing this we will do the visual lookout," he stated.
Group Captain Anupam Banerjee: ISRO satellites are also being used for photographing this area which will be analysed & used for further search operation. Next of kin of all the missing personnel have been informed about the search effort. We are in constant touch with them. pic.twitter.com/K2HJaHD3ag
— ANI (@ANI) June 4, 2019
Banerjee said that the team is in constant touch with "next of kin" of the missing personnel and have informed them about the search operation.
Earlier in the day, ISRO's CARTOSAT AND RISAT satellites, along with Naval P-8I spy planes, pressed into service to locate the wreckage of the missing AN-32 aircraft which went missing on Monday afternoon with 13 IAF personnel on board.
Both the satellites are taking images of the area where the plane went missing. RISAT or Radar Imaging Satellites are all-weather surveillance satellites that can take images of the areas and since they rely on optical sensors, cloud cover doesn't hamper the reconnaissance work they do.
The Indian Air Force on Monday clarified that no wreckage of its missing AN-32 aircraft has been sighted.
The IAF has said that while some reports of possible location of the crash site were received, no wreckage has been sighted so far, news agency ANI reported.
Watch: Indian Air Force’s AN-32 aircraft with 13 onboard goes missing
IAF's AN-32 aircraft took off from Assam's Jorhat airbase at 12:25 pm today and went missing after 1 pm.
The aircraft, which had 13 crew members aboard, was headed to Arunachal Pradesh's Mechuka airfield near the China border.