A military transport aircraft An-32 of the Indian Air Force crashed while approaching to land at the Jorhat Air Base in Assam, in the northeast of the country. This was reported on Saturday, June 13, on social media X by the Indian Air Force.
The disaster occurred during a scheduled flight at around 10:00 local time. According to Indian authorities, five military personnel died as a result of the crash. Another crew member - the second pilot - survived, said a representative of the Indian Air Force to AFP.
Judging by the footage shown in a report by the Indian TV channel NTV, the aircraft broke apart. "A commission for investigation is being established to determine the causes of the incident. <...> Currently, work is ongoing at the crash site and a preliminary investigation has started," the country's Air Force stated.
The An-32 was specifically developed for India
The twin-engine turboprop aircraft An-32 was developed by the "Antonov" design bureau in Kyiv under a contract with India in the mid-1970s. It is designed to operate in extreme conditions and can carry up to 7.5 tons of cargo or 50 crew members.
According to the website of the company "Antonov," which now belongs to Ukraine, the production of the aircraft continued until 1996, during which time a total of 358 planes were built in Kyiv. By the end of the 1980s, 118 of them were handed over to India.
Aviation disasters in India
This isn't the first aviation incident in the Indian Air Force in recent years. Back in early March 2026, about 60 km from the city of Jorhat, a crash involving a Su-30 fighter jet, produced both in the USSR and later in Russia, resulted in the deaths of two crew members. In October 2022, in Arunachal Pradesh, which borders China, a crash of a US-made Bell 407 helicopter claimed the lives of five military personnel.
In December 2021, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, a crash of a Russian-made Mi-17 helicopter resulted in the death of the then Chief of Defence Staff of India, General Bipin Rawat, along with 12 others, including his wife.