New Delhi: A Keralite was among the 13 personnel who were onboard the Indian Air Force An-32 aircraft that went missing after taking off from Assam's Jorhat for a remote military location at Mechuka in Arunachal Pradesh on Monday afternoon. Eight air crew members and five passengers were on board the aircraft.

The missing Malayali was identified as Sergeant Anup Kumar of Anchal in Kerala’s Kollam district. As per the latest reports, tribal villagers saw 'thick black smoke' billowing from the deep forests at Molo village in Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh. However, the IAF is yet to confirm if it has received any information on the missing plane.

Anup is the son of Sashidharan and Vimala of Alencherry in Anchal. He is a sergeant at the Jorhat base. His wife Vrinda and their child live with him in Assam. His relatives have reached Assam after the flight was reported missing.

The others on board the plane were identified as: Wing Commander Charles, Squadron leader Vinod, Flight lieutenants Mohit Garg, Ashish Tanwar, Mohanty, Thapa, Sharin, K K Misra, Pankaj, SK Singh, Rajesh Kumar and Putali.

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu has issued instructions to intensify the search for the missing personnel.

A massive search and rescue operation to trace the Russian-origin aircraft continues, leaving family members of the crew in despair. The IAF has said the aircraft took off from Jorhat 12:27 pm for the Menchuka advance landing ground in ShiYomi district in Arunachal, and its last contact with the ground control was at 1 pm.

An AN-32 aircraft had crashed near a village in West Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh in June 2009 in which 13 defence personnel were killed.

In July 2016, an AN-32 aircraft went missing while taking off from Chennai for Port Blair with 29 people on board. The aircraft could not be traced following weeks of massive search operations covering 2,17,800 square nautical miles by multiple aircraft. Months later, an IAF court of inquiry concluded that it was unlikely that the missing personnel on board the aircraft would have survived the accident.