Nine of the men onboard are from Visakhapatnam.
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“The search operation is going on”.
Official sources said, Mr Parrikar will get a detailed briefing on the search and rescue operations being undertaken by the Navy, Air Force and the Coast Guard.
Indian Navy spokesperson DK Sharma said: “As of now we will term it as overdue”.
However, retired defence personnel presumed that turbulent weather might have caused the disappearance of the aircraft. The altitude the aircraft would have been flying might be over 23,000 ft. Pilot will be in touch with voice communication if needed.
With the IAF aircraft still untraceable despite a full-scale search and rescue mission, the family is in absolute despair and grief.
The television network stated more than 12 Navy and Coast Guard ships have been directed to the Bay of Bengal along with a submarine to search for the transport plane.
Five surveillance aircraft of the Navy including a P8I aircraft, a Dornier, and 13 ships – Sahyadri, Rajput, Ranvijay, Kamorta, Kirch, Karmuk, Kora, Kuthar, Shakti, Jyoti, Ghariyal, and Sukanya are participating in the search operation. However, the plane also has an emergency beacon which was expected to send signals if the aircraft would had met an accident.
AN-32 transport aircraft releases chaff as it flies past the IAF Day Parade in New Delhi, India.
After the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, Chennai, received information from the Flight Information Centre that the aircraft that gone missing, it began to coordinate search operations, the release said.
The Indian Air Force has a fleet of over 100 of Antonov AN-32s, in service since the 1980s, and they are slated for a $400 million avionics upgrade and modernization program by the Ukrainian arms trading firm Ukrspetsexport. The aircraft was reportedly on courier duty.
In 2013, all 20 people on board a military helicopter were killed when it crashed in northern India.
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This is the first time ever an AN32 has disapperaed over the Bay of Bengal. The skeletal remains and personal belongings of the crew members were recovered from the sea bed off the Tamil Nadu coast.
