Pramila writes to Rajnath over missing Odia IAF officer

Bhubaneswar: The first-time parliamentarian Pramila Bisoyi from Odisha urged Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to expedite the search operation of the missing IAF aircraft and bring back the Odia officer, who was on board.

In her maiden official letter as the Lok Sabha MP, the Mission Shakti fame Pramila drew attention of Rajnath over the Flight Lieutenant Sunit Mohanty, who was flying on the missing IAF AN-32 flight on June 3.

“Sunit Mohanty belongs to my parliamentary constituency Aska of district Ganjam, Odisha. His parents are quite disturbed and with folded hands appraised the situation,” she wrote.

Expressing her solidarity with the parents of Sunit, she requested the union minister to expedite the search operation of the missing flight as well as the Odia IAF officer.

“It was very painful to see their plights and hence requesting you to expedite the search operation of the missing IAF AN-32 flight and bring back Mohanty along with other members, who were on board,” Pramila wrote.

Notably, Flight Lieutenant Sunit Mohanty hailing from Baliapalli village in Odisha’s Ganjam district was among the 13-member crew on board AN-32 aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) which went missing while flying from Assam to Arunachal Pradesh on June 3.

The plane had taken off from Assam’s Jorhat at 12.27 p.m. for Mechuka Advanced Landing Ground in Arunachal Pradesh’s West Siang district bordering China, but it lost contact with ground authorities at around 1.00 p.m.

The IAF intensified and expanded search to locate the AN-32 plane. According reports, four Mi-17, three Advanced Light Helicopters (two of Army and one from IAF), two SU-30 MKI, one C130 and one Army UAV, satellites and all possible civil, police and local administrative agencies have further expanded search based on human and sensor inputs.