India on Thursday said there were no survivors from a military plane crash last week in a remote mountainous region close to China.

The Soviet-built AN-32 plane, carrying eight crew and five passengers, disappeared from radars on June 3 in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, prompting a week-long search by the Indian Air Force (IAF).

“Eight members of the rescue team have reached the crash site today (Thursday) morning,” the IAF said on Twitter.
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“IAF is sad to inform that there are no survivors.”

Helicopters and planes scoured hundreds of square miles of the mountainous region before emergency workers Tuesday spotted the wreckage on a mountainside at an elevation of some 12,000 feet (3,650 meters).

A mountaineering team trekked to the crash spot after being air dropped at a nearby location after two failed attempts.

Authorities had earlier urged locals to organise search in the rugged mountains and announced a cash reward of 550,000 rupees ($8,000) for any information.

The twin-engine plane lost contact with ground control 35 minutes after taking off.

In 2016, another AN-32 — flying from Chennai to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands — went missing above the Bay of Bengal. It had 29 people aboard and was never found.

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