Five Indian Air Force personnel have been killed after a transport aircraft crashed while landing at an air force station in the northeastern state of Assam.
The Russian-made Antonov An-32 “met with an accident” during a routine sortie in the Jorhat region, the air force said on Saturday.
“Crash site management and initial enquiries are on at this time,” it wrote on X.
“A court of inquiry is being constituted to ascertain the cause of the accident,” it added.
News channel NDTV broadcast images of the crash site, showing a thick black plume of smoke and the aircraft apparently broken into pieces.
Designed to perform well at high altitudes
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.
