Outlook – June 29, 2019

10 OUTLOOK 1 July 2019

by Abdul Gani in Guwahati

D

URING World War II, almost

76 years ago, eight US Army Air

Corps personnel went down in

a B-24J aircraft in the subcon-

tinent’s mountainous north-

eastern edge—now in Aruna-

chal Pradesh. It was many years later

that some remains were found. Since

that first crash, dozens of aircraft, inc-

luding helicopters carrying civilians

and defence personnel, have been lost

in this Himalayan region. The most

rec ent was a twin-engine turboprop

military transport aircraft, Antonov

An-32, of the Indian Air Force that

went missing on June 3 with 13 people

on board. The spot where it crashed

could be identified only after eight

days of search-and-rescue operations

involving satellite imaging, air force

choppers and the navy’s long-range

reconnaissance aircraft P-8i.

Another An-32 had crashed in

Arunachal in June 2009, killing 13.

Since 1995, there have been 13 air

crashes in the state. In April 2011, then

Arunachal CM Dorjee Khandu was

killed when a Pawan Hans chopper

crashed near Tawang. Another Pawan

Hans copter caught fire the same month,

also near Tawang, causing 16 deaths.

This was a decade after the state’s then

education minister Dera Natung had

died with five others in a May 2001

chopper crash in the same area.

Wing Commander (retd) Gobinda

Baruah says there is a Bermuda Triangle

kind of ‘energy’ that probably pulls down

the aircraft. “The area is surrounded by

treacherous mountain ranges, and there

is also a deep gorge. When an aircraft

crosses this area, a kind of electro-mag-

netic force tends to suck it down,” says

the former Indian Air Force (IAF) officer,

who claims to have felt the ‘energy’ while

flying as a passenger aboard an An-32.

Asked about the latest crash, however, he

also hints at “error of judgement” of the

pilots and “poor maintenance” of the

aircraft. “The weather is so horrible and

the terrain so difficult that errors are

common. Unless you are an expert pilot,

it’s tricky to negotiate the ever-changing

weather conditions,” adds Baruah.

Tine Mena, the first from Arunachal

KILLER TURBULENCE

THE HUMP:

GRAVEYARD

OF PLANES

The An-32 crash in Arunachal is the

latest in the Hump’s long history of

pulling down those flying machines