Missing An-32: Flt Lt Mohit’s kin won’t give in to rumours

PATIALA: Amid unconfirmed reports of villagers seeing “black smoke” near a jungle where the Indian Air Force (IAF)’s An-32 transport aircraft had gone missing on Monday, the family of Flt Lt Mohit Garg, 27, has not lost its hopes yet.
Mohit’s uncle Rishipal, who is at the Jorhat airbase along with his elder brother Surinderpal, Mohit’s father, said lot many rumours were doing the rounds in and around Jorhat, but they were not going by the hearsay and waiting for the IAF to share concrete information with them.
He said the family was going through a tough time but had not given up hopes of safe return of Mohit. Dr Prempal, a cousin of Surinderpal, who is with Mohit’s family back home in Samana town in Patiala district, said they were keeping tabs on whatever updates were coming their way through the media and hoping for the best.
Some reports emerging from Itanagar suggested that some tribals had seen "thick black smoke" originating from a mountain towards Molo village in Arunachal Pradesh on Monday after the IAF aircraft lost contact with the ground staff in the afternoon.
However, Rishipal denied these reports claiming that they were hearing lot many things but they would wait for a formal statement from the IAF.
Following the reports of three persons of Tumbin village noticing thick black smoke originating from a mountain about 7-8 km towards Molo village, Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu said the statements of villagers were being verified. The district administrations of Siang, West Siang, Lower Siang and Shi-Yomi had been asked to intensify the search and rescue operations, he said.
The IAF maintained that the area of search had been expanded and more assets including smaller and more maneuverable helicopters like Cheetah had been included in the rescue mission, so as to approach areas inaccessible by bigger helicopters or individuals on foot. The IAF maintained that all leads from airborne sensors including by the Indian Navy were being closely assessed and followed up with search by aircraft and ground teams and it would continue through the night.
Search by the IAF and Indian Army helicopters were adversely affected due to bad weather in the valleys, leading to the IAF calling off its helicopters involved in the search operation on Thursday evening. However, IAF’s C-130J aircraft will continue overnight missions. Nothing had been sighted as yet, according to the officials.
On Monday, the An-32 aircraft took off from Assam’s Jorhat at 12.27 pm with 13 people on board for the Mechuka Advanced Landing Ground in Arunachal Pradesh’s Shi-Yomi district bordering China. The aircraft had lost contact with the ground staff at 1.30 pm.
Meanwhile, Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh has said he was praying for the safe return of Flt Lt Mohit Garg. He tweeted, “Praying for the safety and well-being of IAF personnel and crew of missing aircraft An-32. Flt Lt Mohit Garg of Samana is amongst those missing. Hoping for the rescue efforts to pay off.”