A Sukhoi-30 aircraft with two officers of the Indian Air Force (IAF) on board went missing close to the China border within a few minutes of take-off from the IAF’s base in Tezpur on Tuesday morning. A search launched almost immediately has not yielded any result till late afternoon. Tezpur-based Defence PRO Lt Col Shombit Ghosh said the aircraft, which was on a routine training mission, lost radio and radar contact with the IAF base at about 60 km north of Tezpur, which is well within the Kameng region of Arunachal Pradesh that shares international boundary with China. The aircraft had taken off from Tezpur IAF base around 10:30 am. This is the second time that a Sukhoi-30 aircraft of the Tezpur IAS base has met with trouble, the previous occasion being on May 19, 2015 when a Sukhoi-30 aircraft had crashed close to the Laokhowa wildlife sanctuary in Nagaon district, south of the Brahmaputra. Both pilots on board had managed to eject safely to return to Tezpur. Tezpur, being close to the China border, is a very important IAF base in the Northeast, and Sukhoi-30 aircraft were formally inducted into the IAF station there in May 2006.
