Imphal, June 15: The mortal remains of all the 13 occupants of the IAF AN-32 aircraft that crashed in Arunachal Pradesh on June 3, will be sent to Assam's Jorhat in stages. The rescue effort to retrieve the mortal remains of the air-warriors who lost their lives in the line of duty, commenced again on Saturday morning after being hampered due to inclement weather in the area. The IAF in its statement informed that the first seven bodies were recovered on Thursday while Cheetah and ALH helicopters were put on stand-by to commence the operations once the weather improves. Missing IAF AN-32 Plane Had SOS Signal Unit That is Old and No Longer Produced.

Wing Commander Puneet Chadha said in a statement said that there are low clouds associated with rain in the area and the IAF is making all efforts to retrieve the mortal remains of the deceased air-warriors. "IAF personnel are in constant contact with the families of these air-warriors and are being updated regularly. They are also being explained about the challenges about the weather", he added.

The personnel who lost their lives in the tragic crash have been identified as Wing Commander G.M. Charles, Squadron Leader H. Vinod, Flight Lieutenant M.K. Garg, Flight Lieutenant S. Mohanty, Flight Lieutenant A. Tanwar, Flight Lieutenant R. Thapa, Warrant Officer K.K. Mishra, Sergeant Anoop Kumar, Corporal Sharin, Leading Aircraftman S.K. Singh, Leading Aircraftman Pankaj, NC(E) Putali and NC(E) Rajesh Kumar.

The ill-fated transport plane of the IAF took off on June 3 from the Jorhat airbase for the Mechuka Advanced Landing Ground in Arunachal's Shi-Yomi district bordering China but lost contact with the ground agencies within 35 minutes of taking off from the Jorhat airbase in Assam.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 15, 2019 02:15 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).