Massive search is on for the missing Indian Air Force, AN-32 aircraft in the Bay of Bengal.
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The aircraft went missing Friday en route from the southern city of Chennai to Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
The fate of 29 people on board the Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft that went missing over the Bay of Bengal on Friday morning is still unclear as search operations continued till late into Saturday.
Maximum assets have been deployed for the search operation which includes navy’s P-81 aircraft, Dorniers along with navy and coast guard ships. “We are covering every bit, we are going to start a systematic and scientific search, we will also place our ships to different areas sooner”, he said.
An Indian Navy submarine has also been diverted to the area to try and detect transmissions of the locator beacon of the missing aircraft.
The 29 passengers on the plane included six crew members, eight civilians, 11 air force personnel, two army soldiers, one navy soldier and a coast guard member.
The AN-32 is a Russian-made aircraft and is the main work horse of the Indian air force – they can fly for four hours without refuelling. She was on her way to Port Blair to join her husband who is a Coast Guard officer.
“Reached Tambaram to monitor operations on IAF AN-32 aircraft”, Parrikar tweeted upon his arrival at the suburban airforce here.
Sources said the plane was flying at a height of 23,000 feet – forty minutes after it took off from the Tamabaram airport at 8.30 am – when it took a sharp left turn and suddenly lost altitude.
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Full scale search and rescue launched to look for an IAF AN-32 overdue at Port Blair since 1130 hrs. The Navy has involved a P8I aircraft and a Donier aircraft, and four ships – Karmukh, Gharial, Jyoti, and Kuthar – for its search operation. It has been found that the plane was 151 nautical miles to the east of Tamil Nadu at that time. Five planes, 13 vessels, and a submarine have been pressed into service. “The defence minister was apprised of the hard conditions under which the rescue operations are being carried out”.
