india

Updated: Jun 06, 2019 23:41 IST

Union defence minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday met a family members of the Indian Air Force officials on-board the AN-32 aircraft that went missing in Arunachal Pradesh on June 3, officials said.

The minister told the families that search efforts were in full swing and they would be extended all required help. Till Thursday, the search teams had made no headway in locating the Soviet-origin military transport plane.

Search efforts were intensified with four Mi-17s, three advanced light helicopters, two Sukhoi-30s, one C-130J and an army UAV. Two Cheetah choppers will join the operations on Friday.

The aircraft, which took off from Jorhat in Assam, was on its way to an advanced landing ground at Mechuka in Arunachal Pradesh when it vanished from the radar. Mechuka is about 15 km from the Line of Actual Control, the disputed border with China.

Officials said the AN-32 is equipped with an emergency locator transmitter (ELT)— an emergency beacon in the cargo section that can broadcast distress signals to reveal it location. No signal from the ELT has been detected yet, officials said.