‘There was no emergency communication message received from the plane, ‘ air force spokesman Anupam Banerjee said. Worries mounted for the authorities as time was running out and no positive signals emerged from the operations Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Saturday undertook an aerial survey to personally monitor the search and rescue operations. He also reviewed the situation on ground and flew over the area of operations in a P-8I Long Range Maritime Patrol Aircraft of the Navy.
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“It is very unfortunate that we have not been able to trace the missing aircraft and the personnel on board”.
The Antonov An-32 is a tactical transport aircraft used by the Indian Air Force and have been in service since 1984.
An IAF source said Friday radar data from the missing aircraft showed it making a sharp left turn before rapidly losing altitude.
Parrikar, however, directed that the search operations should be continued unhindered till further orders, they added.
The AN-32 aircraft of the Indian Air Force was on a scheduled courier sortie from Tambaram in Chennai to Port Blair in the Andamans.
The IAF, Indian Navy (IN) and Indian Coast Guard (ICG) have deployed 17 aircraft in total to search for the missing military transport aircraft.
Scientific organisations such as INCOIS, NIOT and ISRO have also collaborated in the search operations by providing satellite imaging as well as floating deep water apparatuses to try and find the black box of the aircraft.
The defense ministry said four surveillance planes, 12 ships and a submarine were searching for the aircraft in one of India’s largest search and rescue operations in recent years.
The Indian space agency will be using its Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT) that can see through the clouds to try and locate the missing plane, Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) Chairman A S Kiran Kumar told IANS.
An Indian Navy submarine has also been diverted to the area to try and detect transmissions of the locator beacon of the missing aircraft.
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According to Indian Coast Guard, an global safety network was activated as part of the search and rescue procedures for alerting the merchant ships passing through the region.
