Ramban hamlet prays for safe return of AN-32 crew members

With no trace of the missing IAF AN-32 aircraft, residents of a remote hamlet in Jammu and Kashmir's Ramban district are praying for the safe return of the local boy Pritam Chand and other crew members who were on board the plane.
"We pray for the safety and security of the our son of the soil and all crew members of the missing AN-32 aircraft. We feel that their son would return safe and sound," Sarpanch of Papria Panchayat Uttam Singh told PTI.
"We are going with a delegation to meet Deputy Commissioner of Ramban today. We will seek help from authorities and defence people to trace them," Singh said.

The family has hardly got any update on the incident as their hamlet Karma Papdia is located in a remote forest, 40 kms away from Ramban district headquarters.
Residents of this hamlet have been thronging the house of 24-year-old Airman Pritam Chand since the day the IAF aircraft went missing.
The family members of airman, particularly his father Hansraj and mother Dwarikho Devi though distraught, have not left the hope of their youngest son returning safe and sound.

The plane had gone missing during its flight from Chennai to Port Blair with 29 people onboard on July 22. It had left the Tambaram air base near Chennai at 8.30 AM on Friday and was supposed to land at Port Blair at around 11.45 AM.

It fell off the radar at 9.12 AM, 280 km east of Chennai.
The plane made the last radio contact at 8:46 AM, 16 minutes after take-off, when the pilot reported that "everything is normal".