The mountains of Arunachal, where an IAF AN-32 plane crashed, has long been a danger zone for aviators.

Wreckage of the AN 32 that crashed on June 3 en-route Mechuka was found in Pari Hills of Siang district after eight days of extensive search in a 1,000 sq km area.

The AN-32 crash in Arunachal Pradesh has become another grim reminder of the reality that flying over the mountainous state continues to be fraught with risks.

For World War II pilots, this eastern Himalayan region was the “Skyway to Hell” and despite advances in flight technology since then, the stretch of deep valleys and high mountains is still one the deadliest flight routes in the world.

And once a plane goes down, the dense foliage and cloudy hills make it hard to even find the wreckage, as was the case with the Indian Air Force transporter en route from Jorhat in Assam to Mechuka in Arunachal Pradesh. The plane with 13 people on board remained missing for eight days.

The wreckage was finally spotted on Pari Hills in Siang district. When rescuers managed to reach the crash site, at a height of nearly 12,000 feet, they found no survivors.

AVIATION CHALLENGES: 

Thick cloud form by 1 pm, particularly in pre-monsoon season Rapid changes in weather coupled with occasional strong winds Rugged terrain, deep gorges and steep valleys rising above 10,000 ft Low population density, poor road network hamper search operations.

Crashes in Arunachal 

13 Air crashes since 1995* including 2 AN-32s and a Su-30 
10 of these are chopper crashes 
106 No. of deaths (including that of Arunachal CM Dorjee Khandu), due to these crashes 
594 No. of Allied forces’ aircraft that crashed in “the Hump”. The area comprises of today’s Arunachal and parts of China and Myanmar 
81 No. of Allied aircraft that are still missing 
345 No. of people, mainly from the US, listed as missing in these crashes

Once Upon The Hump 

Flying over the unforgiving eastern Himalayas has often been tragic.

In April 1942, when the Japanese Army blocked Burma Road (the 1,150-km mountain highway between Lashio in present-day Myanmar and Kunming in China), US-led Allied forces had to undertake arguably the biggest airlift in aviation history. For the next three years, the C-47, C-46 and C-109 planes transported nearly 650,000 tonnes of supplies (fuel, food and ammunition) from airfields in Assam to those in Yunnan, China.

The Allied pilots nicknamed the route as “the Hump” because their aircraft had to navigate deep gorges and then quickly fly over mountains rising beyond 10,000 feet. “The Hump” is none other than today’s Arunachal Pradesh and parts of Myanmar and Tibet. Over 650 aircraft crashed in “the Hump”, killing more than 1,000 fliers, mostly pilots, according to Lt Gen William Tunner, then commanding the US Military Air Transport Service.

Also, 81 aircraft went missing in the region, with searchers failing to spot any wreckage. It took around 70 years before the debris of two such planes — a C-109 from Jorhat to Hsinching and a B-24J from Kunming to Chabua — was spotted in the hills of Arunachal by trekkers and villagers.

13 Since 1995 

Planes may have become more advanced, but this region’s rugged terrain and severe weather conditions remain the same as they were during World War II.

Based on readily available data, Arunachal Pradesh has witnessed 13 air crashes since 1995. This included 10 choppers, two AN-32 transporters and a Sukhoi Su 30 fighter jet.

Plane accidents in the state before the 90s were rare since there was hardly any aircraft activity in the mountainous north. After the Allied airlift ended in 1945, there was no urgency for planes to fly over “the Hump”.

Even the IAF, till about a decade ago, had restricted flights over this region till 1 pm because of rapid formation of thick clouds in pre-monsoon days along with other weather hiccups.

But with the Chinese military aggressively strengthening its airbases on the other side of the McMahon Line that demarcates China and northern Arunachal Pradesh, New Delhi shed its complacency.

The government soon handed over eight strategic airfields in Tuting, Mechuka, Aalo, Tawang, Ziro, Pasighat, Walong and Vijaynagar to IAF for upgradation. That was a decade ago.

By then, the IAF also began flying in the evening and also experimented with limited night sorties.

To Stay Out of Danger Commercial flights in Arunachal Pradesh first started in the mid-1980s when state-run Vayudoot Airlines (now defunct) flew 19-seater fixed wing aircraft to Pasighat and Ziro. But operations were abandoned mainly because the airline could not recover costs.

Then last year, when Air India subsidiary Alliance Air started flying a passenger plane (a 46-seater ATR 42) to one of the upgraded airfields — the Advanced Landing Ground in Pasighat, the issue of safe landing was made top priority.

Navigational aides were installed; some trees near the airfield were uprooted and drains along the runway were covered to enhance safety, Alliance Air CEO CS Subbiah had told this writer in May 2018.