“We are aware of the accident of an IAF transport plane in Jorhat. We are awaiting further details,” Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told NDTV.
Rescue teams immediately went to the scene to extinguish the fire and assess the situation. The cause of the accident has not yet been determined.
The Antonov An-32 is a robust twin-engine turboprop military transport aircraft that serves as the “workhorse” of the Indian Air Force. It was originally developed in the Soviet Union specifically for the needs of India. Today, the local air force operates approximately one hundred of these machines.
An-32 is designed to withstand extreme conditions. It operates reliably at high altitudes and in hot tropical climates. It can transport up to 7.5 tons of cargo, roughly 50 passengers or 42 paratroopers. The aircraft is therefore widely used especially for supplying remote and hard-to-reach areas.
The crash occurred about 100 kilometers from the disputed Chinese border, where there are occasional incidents between armies. “Disputed borders” means the unrecognized and unresolved border between India and China in the Himalayas, particularly in the Arunachal Pradesh region, where both countries claim the same territory.
The crash comes just a few months after two Indian Air Force pilots were killed in another accident. They crashed with a Sukhoi Su‑30MKI fighter in the Karbi Anglong district of Assam.
The accident occurred on March 5 this year, when a two-seater fighter jet took off for a routine flight from the Jorhat air base. At approximately 19:42, the machine lost contact with ground control and subsequently disappeared from the radars. Authorities later confirmed that the plane had crashed in a remote, hilly area of Karbi Anglong district, about 60 kilometers from Jorhat.
And in 2019, an An-32 plane that took off from the same base crashed near the Chinese border. All 13 people died then.
