Palwal (Haryana): Monday was a tragic day for the kin of those who were on board the ill-fated An-31 aircraft that took off from Jorhat. What is more tragic is that Sandhya Tanwar, wife of Air Force Flight Lieutenant Ashish Tanwar, who was one of the 13 people who were on board the aircraft, was on duty as the Air Traffic Controller at the time the plane vanished from the radar.
Sandhya Tanwar, who is also a Flight Lieutenant with the Indian Air Force, and the rest of Tanwar’s family in Haryana’s Palwal, continue to remain in the dark about his fate as search operations for those on board the An-32 aircraft continues.
Tanwar’s mother, Saroj told ANI that her son and daughter-in-law had only recently been to visit them, after which they left on a week-long vacation to Thailand. He had assured us that he would be back soon but it has been four days since we’ve heard from him, she said.
Explaining her own theory about the fate of her son, Saroj said that the aircraft might have crossed over to China. She also questioned why the Indian government was not negotiating with the Chinese authorities to ensure their return.
It can be recalled that the An-32 aircraft took off from Jorhat at 12.25 PM on Monday and was flying towards the Advance Landing Ground in Mechuka in Arunachal Pradesh, an area that borders China. It vanished from the radar hardly half an hour into the flight. Search operations were called off on Thursday due to poor visibility but was picked up again on Friday, June 7.
Mi-17, ALH helicopters, Sukhoi Su-30 and C-130J fighter jets, have been deployed by the Indian Air Force to locate the missing aircraft. Unmanned aerial vehicles were also used on Thursday for the same. The Indian Navy also joined the search and pressed its Long Range Maritime Reconnaissance aircraft P8I into action.
Tanwar’s family, however, is not satisfied with the measures being taken to locate the aircraft and its passengers. His uncle, Udayvir Singh has even sought an audience with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to make their demands regarding the search operations. Speaking to ANI, Udayvir said that there are over four lakh army personnel posted in the eastern sector. He questioned why they can’t be deployed to look for the missing aircraft.
Flight Lieutenant Tanwar, according to his uncle, joined the Air Force in December 2013 after a brief stint with a multinational company and was commissioned as a pilot in May 2015. He had completed his early education from Kendriya Vidyalaya and later joined a B Tech course in Kanpur. He added that Tanwar plunged into a career in the military because almost everyone in his family is either with the Indian Air Force or Army.
