BODIES OF 13 INDIAN AIR FORCE MEN KILLED IN CRASH RECOVERED: PICTURES INSIDE!

After eight days of a massive search operation, the bodies of 13 Indian Air Force personnel who died in an An-32 aircraft crash last week in Arunachal Pradesh have been recovered today.

For a week, relatives of the 13 personnel were positioned at a Jorhat base camp in Assam as they waited for news. The black box of the transport plane has also been recovered. An analysis of the black box data will allow the Air Force to establish the cause behind the crash.

According to NDTV reports, the Air Force had confirmed on June 13 that there were no survivors from the crash. A 15-member rescue team, mountaineers and special forces recovered the bodies from the densely forested mountainside where the aircraft crashed. "Helicopters would be used to ferry the bodies from the area," officials said.

The 13 IAF personnel have been identified as Wing Commander GM Charles, Squadron Leader H Vinod, Flight Lieutenant R Thapa, Flight Lieutenant A Tanwar, Flight Lieutenant S Mohanty, Flight Lieutenant MK Garg, Warrant Officer KK Mishra, Sergeant Anoop Kumar S, Corporal Sharin NK, Leading aircraftman SK Singh, Leading aircraftman Pankaj, Non-combatant Employee Putali and Non-combatant Employee Rajesh Kumar, reports NDTV.

Media reports say that, the black box of the aircraft, which includes the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder, has been retrieved. The plane, a Soviet-designed twin engine turboprop transport aircraft, had gone missing around 1:00 pm on June 3 while flying from Assam's Jorhat to Mechuka, a military landing strip in Arunachal Pradesh. It was meant to be a 50-minute journey.

Following air-warriors lost their life in the tragic #An32 crash - W/C GM Charles, S/L H Vinod, F/L R Thapa, F/L A Tanwar, F/L S Mohanty, F/L MK Garg, WO KK Mishra, Sgt Anoop Kumar, Cpl Sherin, LAC SK Singh, LAC Pankaj, NC(E) Putali & NC(E) Rajesh Kumar.

— Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) June 13, 2019