Aircraft P8I equipped with special radars, sensors airborne to search IAF AN-32

New Delhi: The Indian Navy on Friday pressed its Long Range Maritime Reconnaissance aircraft P8I in the ongoing search operation for the AN-32 aircraft which went missing on June 3 in Arunachal Pradesh.

The aircraft P8I is airborne from INS Rajali, Arakonam, Tamil Nadu on Friday morning.

It is equipped with special radars and sensors which will help locate the missing plane during the search operation, informed the Indian Navy.

"Long Range Maritime Reconnaissance aircraft P8I airborne from INS Rajali, Arakonam, Tamil Nadu for the ongoing search operations for missing AN-32. It will carry out a search using its special radars and sensors for locating the plane," informed Indian Navy.

The search operations for the plane, which went missing over Arunachal Pradesh, entered the fifth day on Friday.

Bad weather conditions on Wednesday had put a halt to the search operations by helicopters, however, two Sukhoi-30 MKI combat jets and one C 130J aircraft carried out night missions to locate the plane.

The AN-32 aircraft had taken off from Assam's Jorhat on June 3 and was headed for Mechuka Advance Landing Ground (ALG) in Arunachal Pradesh when it lost contact with ground authorities at around 1300 hours and went missing.

Indian Army on Thursday deployed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for search. The IAF had also said that Cheetah choppers have been deployed in the search operations.

On the other hand family members of Ashish Tanwar, the pilot of IAF AN 32 aircraft, met Defence Minister Rajnath Singh at his residence here on Thursday.