5 Indian Air Force members killed as military transport plane crashes in Assam
Representational image. Photo courtesy: Wikipedia.
Five Indian Air Force personnel have lost their lives after an Indian military transport plane An-32 crashed on Saturday while landing at the Jorhat air base in Assam.
The co-pilot has survived and is being provided treatment, ANI said, citing IAF officials.
The Indian Air Force identified the five killed as Squadron Leader Prashant Singh, Flight Lieutenant Shubham Kumar, Seargant Jitendra Sharma, Agniveervayu Khemaram Kumawat and Agniveervayu Danish Alam, who "made the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty".
Agniveervayu refers to a member inducted into IAF under a short-term recruitment scheme by the Indian government.
India's Defence Minister Rajnath Singh offered his condolences, saying he was "deeply anguished by the loss of five Air Warriors in the An-32 accident."
"A court of inquiry is being constituted, to ascertain the cause of the accident," according to an IAF statement. The air force said earlier that the Russian-made Antonov An-32 was on a "routine sortie" when it crashed as it came in to land.
News channel NDTV broadcast images of the crash site, showing a thick black plume of smoke and the aircraft apparently broken into pieces.
The An-32, a twin-engine turboprop, is specially designed to perform well at high altitudes and in extreme climates. The Indian air force operates about 100 of them for military supplies and civilian aid in the country's remotest mountain areas.
The last major crash involving the plane occurred in 2019 in Arunachal Pradesh state, near the border with China, when 13 people were killed. (Source Khaleej Times)