A full-scale search and rescue mission has been launched to search the AN-32 transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) that went missing over the Bay of Bengal on Friday, with 29 people on board.
The aircraft was on way to Port Blair from Chennai, and was to land at Port Blair at 11.30 a.m. The plane took off from Tambaram Air Force Station in Chennai at 8.30 a.m, and was on “a routine courier flight” to Port Blair.
People on board included six crew members (two pilots, a navigator, a flight engineer, and two technicians), 17 military personnel and eight civilians.
“The Defense Minister was appraised of the difficult conditions under which the operations are being carried out during the last 24 hours. The sea is very choppy and there is thick cloud cover in area,” the Defense Ministry official said.
“Defense Minister reviewed the situation and utilization of assets and resources and has directed that if necessary more resources to be diverted to the effort,” officials further said.
The last radio contact with the AN-32 was established at 8.46 am on Friday, 16 minutes after it took off from Chennai. On radars, it was last spotted at about 9.15 am, around 151 nautical miles east of Chennai.
The twin-engine AN-32 was from the 33 Squadron at the Sulur airbase. These planes were first inducted in IAF in 1984, and since then, they have been IAF workhorses in ferrying cargo and troops to forward areas. The plane that went missing on Friday was upgraded in September 2015 at the 1 Base Repair Depot at Kanpur, and had reportedly suffered some minor technical snags earlier this month.
On Saturday, Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar reached Tambaram air base to monitor search operation, and was briefed by IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha.
A massive search and rescue operation has been launched by IAF, Navy and Coast Guard. Sixteen 16 warships and vessels, two Poseidon-8I, one C-130J Super Hercules and three Dornier aircraft are currently hunting for the missing plane in “probable crash zone”. According to Indian Navry, the ships deployed to search the plane include Shivalik-class stealth frigate INS Sahyadri, guided-missile destroyers INS Rajput and Ranvijay, corvettes Kirch, Kamorta, Karmuk, Kora, Kuthar, amphibious warfare vessel INS Gharial, fleet tankers INS Jyoti and INS Shakti, and patrol vessel INS Sukanya.
A Sindhughosh-class submarine has also been diverted from “an ongoing mission” to “seek underwater transmissions from the locator beacon of the aircraft.”
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