An Indian military transport plane crashed on Saturday while landing at an air force station in the country’s remote northeast.
Five Indian Air Force personnel were killed while landing at a base on Saturday, the military said in a statement.
“The Indian Air Force deeply regrets the loss of five personnel in the An-32 accident at Jorhat”, a city in Assam state, the air force said in a statement.
The air force said it “extends its deepest condolences to the bereaved families and stands firmly with them in this hour of grief”.
The Russian-made Antonov An-32 “met with an accident while landing at Jorhat”, a city in Assam state, the air force said.
“A court of inquiry is being constituted, to ascertain the cause of the accident,” it said.
News channel NDTV broadcast images of the crash site, showing a thick black plume of smoke and the aircraft apparently broken into pieces.
The An-32, a twin-engine turboprop, is specially designed to perform well at high altitudes and in extreme climates.
The Indian air force operates about 100 of them for military supplies and civilian aid in the country’s remotest mountain areas.
The last major crash involving the plane occurred in 2019 in Arunachal Pradesh state, near the border with China, when 13 people were killed.
AFP
