Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa on Saturday said the Indian Air Force was trying to ascertain the cause of the recent crash of AN-32 aircraft in Arunachal Pradesh that killed 13 people.
He said the IAF would also take steps to ensure such accidents do not recur. He was talking to reporters on the sidelines of the Combined Graduation Parade at Air Force Academy, Dundigal on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
The aircraft went missing on June 3, after taking off from Jorhat in Assam. Its wreckage was found by the rescue team on Tuesday at a height of 12,000 feet near Gatte village on the border of Siang and Shi-Yomi districts. All 13 persons onboard were killed.
The IAF chief said they recovered the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. “We will analyse it and go into details to find out what happened and how we make sure that it does not happen again,” he said.
Dhanoa said that the terrain in Aruncahal is difficult to fly. “The terrain there is very treacherous and most of the time it is cloudy,” he said and pointed that there have been many accidents involving not just IAF aircraft but also others.
