Chennai: The return of National Institute of Ocean Technology’s exploration ship Sagarnidhi back to Chennai from sea on Saturday, virtually marked the end of 41-day-long but unsuccessful mission, ‘Operation Talaash’, searching for clues for missing IAF flight AN 32 and 29 its passengers in Bay of Bengal. Sagarnidhi was the last ship remaining in the sea looking for clues. The flight went missing on July 22.
“Yes, Sagarnidhi is back in Chennai. We will have to analyse the data collected by our vessel before saying anything. Sagarnidhi was the last ship engaged in search,” disclosed a NIOT official indicating that the physical search has now come to an end.
Forty-one days after IAF AN-32 went missing with 29 persons, including a woman IAF official, on board over Bay of Bengal, ‘Operation Talaash’ has come to an end with no solid clues about the disappearance of the flight. The aircraft is believed to have crashed into the sea during a routine flight from Chennai to Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar islands.
Within hours after the aircraft went missing, the defence establishment launched a massive search operation by engaging 20 ships and four aircraft. In addition, officials had also sought help from Russian Navy Ship Igor Belousov and Geological Survey of India ship Samudra Ratnakar besides NIOT’s Sagarnidhi.
It is believed that the debris of the aircraft could be somewhere on sea bed 3,000 metres deep and only hope remains now for the families of the missing defence personnel is the data captured by Sagarnidhi.
Flight and missing victims
Apart from the six member crew of the IAF, there were 11 IAF personnel, two Indian Army personnel, nine from Navy and one from Coast Guard in the flight.
Of the 29 victims, one identified as R. M. Krishnan, attached to CG, was from Chennai.
The flight took off from Tambaram at 8.30 am and was supposed to land in Port Blair by 11.30 am. Fifteen minutes after the take off, radio contact was lost and about 20 minutes later the last blip on the radar was recorded by IAF ATC.
The Russian made aircraft went missing at about 150 nautical miles from Chennai after it suddenly descended from a height of about 23,000 feet.
