AN-32 crash: Six bodies, seven mortal remains recovered from crash site

New Delhi, June 20: The operation to retrieve the bodies of the 13 air warriors on board the ill-fated AN-32 aircraft that crashed in Arunachal Pradesh completed on Thursday. Six bodies and seven mortal remains were recovered from the crash site.

The IAF had airdropped an 18-member rescue team - comprising 13 personnel from the armed forces and five locals including two mountaineers who have climbed Everest - over two days near the site where the AN-32 had crashed on June 3. The mountaineers had to trek about two hours to reach the site at an altitude of about 12,000 feet on the eastern face of the Pari-Adi Mountain.

The team were in constant touch with the IAF through I-com and satellite phones. All of them are safe and sound, said the IAF.

The wreckage of the missing AN-32 was located by a Mi-17 helicopter on June 11, following which a team of 15 mountaineers was dropped near the crash site the next day.

A rescue team had recovered the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) of the Russian-origin aircraft at the crash site Friday.

The Indian Air Force Thursday said all the 13 people on board the aircraft had died.

The transporter aircraft was going from Jorhat in Assam to Menchuka advanced landing ground near the border with China on June 3 when it had lost contact around half-an-hour after taking off.