Indian Coast Guard was the first to launch the search and rescue operation of the missing Indian Air Force aircraft said that the incident happened between 9.14am and 9.23 am.
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Parrikar has tweeted, that there were Efforts being made to trace the IAF AN 32 aircraft and the Service personnel who were on board the flight.
The IAF is now upgrading its fleet of 101 AN-32 aircraft and the lost plane was one of the ten that had undergone a life-extension, overhaul and upgrade refit in September previous year.
The aircraft was last detected on radar 151 nautical miles east of Chennai, making a left turn with a rapid loss of height from 23,000 ft, according to a note provided by the air force to the defence ministry.
Indian air force spokesman Anupam Banerjee says the last communication from the aircraft was about 15 minutes after takeoff. The rescue operation would continue with more aircraft on Saturday morning.
However, there were no sightings of any aircraft debris in the Bay of Bengal by the search team so far.
“Eastern Naval Command (ENC) deploys two P8i Long Range Maritime Patrol Aircraft with advanced Electro-optics and radars, two Dornier aircraft and 12 ships with integral helicopters to join the search operations initiated to locate the Indian Air Force AN-32 transport aircraft”, a statement issued by Defense ministry said.
The aircraft destined for archipelago of Andaman and Nicobar Islands was scheduled to reach its capital city Port Blair after three hours at 11:30 a.m. local time on Friday.
Apart from the Navy, Coast Guard and Air Force, the Tamil Nadu Coastal Police have also participated in the search operations in the possible area of lose of contact by the missing aircraft. None of the crew was found.
The AN 32 is the main workhorse of IAF to ferry troops and supplies to forward areas.
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The AN-32 is a twin engine turboprop, medium tactical transport aircraft of Russian origin. It can carry a maximum load of around 6.7 tonnes or up to 39 paratroopers. IAF has a fleet of over 100 AN32s but the multi-million dollar upgrade program has been hit due to the crisis in Ukraine.
