“Reached Tambaram to monitor operations on IAF AN-32 aircraft”, Parrikar tweeted upon his arrival at the suburban airforce here.
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The air force, navy and coast guard were using ships, planes and helicopters to conduct a massive search.
As search for the missing AN-32 IAF aircraft with 29 people on board is on, the family and friends of two Kerala defence officials who were on the plane are praying fervently and hoping to hear some good news.
Chennai: Two Kozhikode natives were on board the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) AN 32 transport plane that went missing on Friday – Vimal (30) of Kottooppadam, Kakkodi, and Sajeevkumar (37) of Kakkoor.
The sources said the aircraft did not make any contact with Air Traffic Control of Port Blair, and an “overdue” action was initiated.
He said it can not be predicted how long the weather would last and informed that as of now, there is no headway in the search operations. Defence sources said the plane was at about 23,000 feet at the time of last contact.
Maximum assets have been deployed for the search operation which includes navy’s P-81 aircraft, Dorniers along with navy and coast guard ships.
Sixteen ships, a submarine and six aircraft are searching for the plane that disappeared on a routine re-supply flight to remote islands in the Bay of Bengal Friday.
Two P8I surveillance aircrafts and two Dornier are continuing the search, while one Dornier is on standby at Port Blair. “The search is happening around 200 nautical miles from the shore”, an Indian Coast Guard official told IANS.
The official said the AN-32 aircraft is capable of flying four hours continuously and therefore, it might have landed somewhere. The aircraft can flyfor up to four hours without refuelling. INS Karmukh, Gharial, Jyoti, Kuthar, Sahyadri, Rajput, Ranvijay, Kamorta, Kirch and several other vessels have fanned out at sea to locate the aircraft, naval authorities said.
The IAF, which relies heavily on Russian-made equipment and has about 100 AN-32s in its fleet, has a poor safety record.
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The skeletal remains of the three crew members were recovered after over a month of extensive search operations.
