The Indian Air Force pressed forward all of its assets on Wednesday as the Search and Rescue operation (SAR) to locate its missing AN-32 transport aircraft entered the third day.
The mission was halted because of poor weather.
“As the weather improved two Mi-17, and two ALH, including one from Army, resume the SAR initially. But now even strategic assets like the C130J, Su-30 have been deployed in mission," sources said.
In addition to the ground party of Army, ITBP, local police and other state agencies are also continuing with the rescue.
The area of search and combing involves Along, Payum and Tato in the Arunachal Pradesh.
The aircraft went missing on Monday, with 13 personnel including seven officers and six air warriors on board, after taking off from Jorhat at 12:25 pm.
It was headed for Menchuka Advance Landing Ground (ALG) in Arunachal Pradesh near China border.
The last contact between the aircraft and ground agencies took place at 1 pm.
The Soviet-era aircraft was inducted in the Air Force in the 1980s and has been undergoing upgrades.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is being apprised of the situation by the Air Force on a regular basis.
IAF commenced extensive search and rescue operations and launched C-130J transport aircraft, AN-32, Mi-17 and ALH (Indian Army) helicopters, equipped with advanced sensors.
Indian Navy's Long Range Maritime Reconnaissance aircraft P-8 I also joined the search operations on Tuesday.
CARTOSAT AND RISAT satellites of ISRO are also taking images of the area.
Search by helicopters stopped on Tuesday post-Sunset due to bad weather.
The families of all air-warriors on board the aircraft have been informed and are being regularly updated on the progress of search operations.