An Indian military transport aircraft crashed on Saturday while attempting to land at an air force station in the country’s remote northeastern region, according to an official statement from the military.
The Russian-made Antonov An-32 aircraft “met with an accident today while landing at Jorhat,” a city located in Assam state, the Indian Air Force confirmed. However, authorities have not yet released details regarding possible casualties or the number of personnel on board at the time of the incident.
Officials stated that a court of inquiry has been ordered to investigate the cause of the crash. The investigation will focus on determining technical or operational factors that may have led to the accident during landing.
Television footage broadcast by NDTV showed the crash site with a thick plume of black smoke rising from the wreckage, while the aircraft appeared to have broken into multiple pieces after impact.
The An-32 is a twin-engine turboprop aircraft designed for operations in high-altitude regions and extreme weather conditions. It is widely used by the Indian Air Force for transporting military supplies and providing aid to remote and mountainous areas.
The Indian Air Force operates around 100 An-32 aircraft. The last major incident involving the same model occurred in 2019 in Arunachal Pradesh, near the China border, when 13 people were killed in a similar crash.
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