Sandhya Tanwar, who is posted in Jorhat as Air Traffic Controller was on duty on 3 June when the AN-32 aircraft, carrying 13 IAF personnel, along with her husband, Ashish Tanwar took off at 12:35 pm. That was the last she saw of her husband, who she married just two years ago.
Approximately 30 minutes later, the aircraft went missing, the wreckage of which was located eight days later in Arunachal Pradesh on 11 June.
"I believe my son would be alive," said Ashish’s mother the day the wreckage was located, still clinging to the hope that her son will return home. The IAF on Thursday, 13 June, however, confirmed that all 13 crew members aboard had lost their lives.
The black box of the aircraft, along with all 13 bodies, were recovered from the crash site in Arunachal Pradesh. Choppers will be deployed to ferry the bodies back from the site.
Here’s what we know about the 13 crew members onboard AN-32 aircraft:
Flight Lieutenant Ashish Tanwar
Ashish Tanwar (29) was a native of Deeghot village in Palwal district of Haryana. He had completed his early education from Kendriya Vidyalaya and had later completed a BTech (Computer Science) course from IIT Kanpur.
After working with an MNC for some time, he joined the IAF in December 2013. He was commissioned as a pilot in 2015.
Ashish was married to Sandhya Tanwar for two years, who herself is an IAF officer posted at the same station.
Flight Lieutenant Mohit Garg
Hailing from Patiala, Flight Lieutenant Mohit Garg (27) is survived by his wife, parents, and two siblings. Garg was always interested in joining the defence forces and cleared the entrance for the National Defence Academy (NDA) after class XII.
After receiving training at Pune, he got commissioned as an officer in the IAF.
Posted in Jorhat for five years, Mohit married Aastha, a banker from Jalandhar last year. She was posted at a bank in Assam. His father Surinder and uncle Rishi rushed to Jorhat after getting news of the missing aircraft from Aastha and had been waiting for Mohit’s return since then.
Flight Lieutenants Sunit Mohanty and R Thapa
28-year-old Sunit Mohanty from Baliapalli village in Odisha’s Ganjam was a co-pilot of the aircraft.
Son of a former IAF employee Surendranath Mohanty , he had joined IAF in 2012. After studying Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at NIT Jamshedpur, he worked as a trainee at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
Flight Lieutenant R Thapa, originally from Nepal moved with his grandmother to Faridabad when he was two. He was raised by his grandmother, who was a former government employee.
Squadron Leader H Vinod, Sergeant Anoop Kumar & Corporal Sharin NK
Squadron Leader H Vinod, Sergeant Anoop Kumar and Corporal Sharin NK, all hailed from Kerala.
Vinod was a native of Peringandoor at Mulankunnathukavu in Thrissur. He was an alumnus of Kumaraguru College of Technology, EEE department, 2009 batch.
Sergeant Anoop Kumar hailed from Kerala's Kollam district and is survived by his wife Vrinda and a child.
Corporal Sharin NK was a native of Kerala’s Kannur. He is survived by his parents and wife Ashitha, who he last spoke to on 3 June just before boarding the aircraft.
LAC Pankaj and LAC SK Singh
22-year-old LAC Pankaj had joined the IAF in 2015. Hailing from Gohana in Haryana, he last spoke to his family on 2 June, a day before the aircraft went missing. LAC SK Singh was also a part of the crew.
Non-Combatants NC(E) Putali and NC(E) Rajesh Kumar
Non-Combatant Putali was a resident of the Bakshi Ka Talab area of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Rajesh Kumar was the other non-combatant who lost his life.
Wing Commander GM Charles and Warrant Officer KK Mishra
Wing Commander GM Charles and Warrant Officer KK Mishra were also a part of the crew.
(With inputs from India Today, Manorama, Dainik Jagran, Odisha Post, Jansatta and ANI.)
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