Kabisuryanagar/Bhubaneswar: Indian Air Force (IAF) Thursday confirmed the demise of Odia pilot Sunit Mohanty who was aboard the ill-fated AN-32 transport aircraft that crashed in Arunachal Pradesh recently.
IAF, in a statement said that ‘none of the 13 people on board the missing AN-32 aircraft survived’.
Mohanty was one among the eight crew members of the plane.
The Soviet-origin AN-32 aircraft was going from Jorhat in Assam to Menchuka June 3 when it lost connection with the ground staff at 1:00pm. Its wreckage was spotted Tuesday and since then a massive search operation by the Indian Air Force had been on to spot any evidence of life.
After reviewing the circumstantial evidence and taking other factors into consideration, the IAF declared the 13 passengers dead, paying tribute to the departed souls.
A pall gloom descended after the news reached the pilot’s village Baliapalli under Ambapua panchayat in Kabisuryanagar block of Ganjam district.
PNN