Still no trace of missing IAF plane AN-32; ISRO to help with search

Chennai: More than 48 hours after Indian Air Force’s AN-32 transport plane with 29 people on board went missing over the Bay of Bengal 275 km off Chennai coast on Friday, no trace could be obtained of its location.

According to Eastern naval command chief, the search and rescue team had sought satellite imagery of the area from ISRO to help in the search operation.
The search for missing aircraft is continuing uninterrupted for the third day with 18 ships and 16 aircraft from Indian navy, Indian Air Force and Coast Guard engaged in the operation.

A thorough search operation has been mounted by ships encompassing an area of 120X120 nautical miles, according to sources.

In addition, ships and aircraft from Andaman & Nicobar region are carrying out search in areas along the flight track from Chennai to Port Blair. The An32 K2743 aircraft, which took off from Tambaram IAF airbase near Chennai on Friday at 8.30 am with 29 passengers, including personnel from various wings of defence as well as civilians, disappeared from radar 46 minutes later.

The flight was scheduled to reach Port Blair by 11.30 am. “If the aircraft crashed into the sea and reached the sea bed, which could be easily 2000 to 3000 metres deep, it would take some time to locate it. Even submarines can’t go more than 200 metres deep”, defence sources observed.

It had taken 33 days in July 2015 for the search and rescue operators to locate the remains of Coast Guard Dornier CG 971 on the seabed at a depth of 920 metres.

The aircraft went missing on June 8, 2015 after it took off from the old airport at Meenabakkam and disappeared over the Bay of Bengal in the night when the three-member crew was returning to base after a late evening sortie.

They had then used a remotely operated vessel provided by Reliance Industtries to locate the Dornier debris. Olympic Canyon, equipped with Echo Sounder and remotely operated underwater camera with projector lights which enable it to conduct underwater search besides capturing the video footage of the area, helped to locate and recover flight data recorder (FDR or black box) debris and human remains, on the seabed along the Chidambaram-Cuddalore coastline a year ago.

Olympic Canyon is, however, unlikely to be pressed into service to locate the missing AN-32 since it is docked far away in Norway.

The 4,800-ton Norwegian ship was deployed by the rescue team in June-July 2015 to find the Dornier since the vessel was then with the Reliance Industries under lease.

Reports say the vessel was sought for by Indian authorities for searching for the AN-32, missing since Friday, but news has been conveyed now that the vessel is unavailable as of now.

IAF lodges plaint with Tamil Nadu cops
After 48 hours of frantic search involving assets drawn from Airforce, Navy and Coast Guard, airforce authorities have lodged a formal complaint with Tamil Nadu police over the missing AN-32 aircraft.

“We have received a complaint that Air Force’s AN-32 transport aircraft has gone missing,” a senior police official said on Sunday. “The complaint was lodged last night with Selaiyur police,” he said.

“The complaint says that 29 personnel on board AN-32 and the aircraft have gone missing. Among the missing personnel is one person from Tamil Nadu,” the official said.