An IAF aircraft snag forced Pune airport to shut its runway overnight, triggering mass cancellations across airlines before operations resumed in phases on Saturday morning.
However, the alert pilot ejected himself to safety and no one was hurt in the incident, defence sources said here.
The mission started in the midnight hours of 3-4 May in when IAF’s military transport aircraft C-17 Globemaster aircraft took off from the Hindan Air Force base.
The IAF aircraft went missing on June 3 with 13 officers on board after taking off from Assam’s Jorhat airbase for Menchuka Advance Landing Ground in Arunachal Pradesh.
The AN-32 aircraft went missing on June 3 after taking off from Assam's Jorhat airbase for Menchuka Advance Landing Ground in Arunachal Pradesh.
The reward was announced by the IAF, which has been trying to locate the missing aircraft for the last five days.
The aircraft went missing on Monday over Arunachal Pradesh with 13 personnel onboard.
The missing AN-32 has brought back the memories of a similar tragedy in 2009, where another aircraft with 13 people on board went missing and was later found to have crashed in the jungles.
The IAF has launched Sukhoi-30 combat aircraft and C-130 Special Operations aircraft on a search mission to locate the missing AN-32 jet.
A trainer aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed in neighbouring Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri district Wednesday, police said.
