Hopes fade as no IAF plane survivors sighted

Chennai: The search for Indian Air Force’s missing AN-32 aircraft entered fourth day in an expanded area with no sign of debris or survivors yet, the Coast Guard announced on Monday.

“We have not been able to locate any debris or survivor till now. This is the fourth day of the search operation. The search has been intensified and has been expanded based on the surface drift. As far as today is concerned, there are vessels carrying out the search. Aerial search is being carried out as well,” Coast Guard Commander (East) Inspector General Rajan Bargotra told reporters here.
Mr Bargotra said that during the last four days, the area of search operation had been extended and “we are looking in all directions.”  He said that search area on surface constitutes 14,400 sq nautical miles, whereas 16,000 sq nautical miles are covered through aerial search. “At sea, we have 13 Naval vessels, two Coast Guard ships; there have been about 12 air sorties  involved in the search and rescue operation,” he said. Stating that a linear search was conducted side by side, he said, “We are picking up some items but they don’t belong to the aircraft. Presently the search is continuous.”

On challenges being faced in the search operations, Bargotra said the weather which was bad had improved since yesterday. Stating that the next step would be to go in for underwater search after surface level searches did not yield any results, he noted that Navy has already deployed a submarine. “It will be available from tomorrow,” he said.

Several agencies, including National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) and Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (NCOIS), were coordinating in the search operations and if needed vessel of NIOT ‘Sagar Nidhi’ which is on its way from Mauritius will be used for search operations, he said. When asked whether the Reliance vessel that helped locate missing Dornier aircraft last year would join the search, he said the ship is currently in sea near Netherlands.

The AN-32 aircraft was carrying 29 people on board. It had taken off from Tambaram Air Force Station at 8.30 am on Friday and was set to reach Port Blair around 11:45 am. However, after flying for some time, the aircraft went off the radar, about 151 nautical miles of Chennai coast. It was believed to be flying at 23,000 feet.

Of the people on board, six were crew members, eleven were personnel from the Indian Air Force, two were from the Indian Army and one person was from the Indian Coast Guard.