Indian Navy and Air Force are looking for the aircraft in the Bay of Bengal.
AB Wire
An Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft carrying 29 people including military personnel went missing on Friday morning soon after its take off from Chennai. The AN-32 of the IAF bound to Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar islands lost was declared missing after it lost contact with the control room.
The aircraft took off from Tambaram air base near Chennai at 8.30 in the morning and was scheduled to land in Port Blair at 11.45. but the authorities said that the control room lost the contact with the plane at 9.12 am when it was about 280 kilometers away from Chennai.
“It was found missing. As of now, we will term it as overdue,” said Navy spokesperson DK Sharma.
According to the officials, everything was normal when the pilot reported after 16 minutes of taking off. Though the authorities had alerted other planes in the same locality about AN-32, nothing could found even after waiting for hours.
The Indian Navy along with Air Force has started a search in the Bay of Bengal. 12 Navy and Coast Guard ships and a submarine have been deployed in the area for the search.
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.
There were 11 air force personnel, two army men, one navy personnel and a Coast Guard member on board, reported NDTV. Apart from the military personnel, six crew members and eight family members of were also on board. The fight was carrying the officials to the military base in the islands.
According to a report in the Times of India, the aircraft usually flies at an altitude 21,000 to 23,000 feet, which is lower than the height at which civil aircraft fly.
“Routine military movements are not closely tracked because such planes fly well below the altitude of commercial carriers over the sea. The flight often goes off contact on radar after it crosses 150 miles away from Chennai because the signal strength is poor and it may not be equipped with modern tracking system. Pilot will be in touch with voice communication if needed. Its absence will be known only when it does not show up at a particular place under the range of Port Blair or before,” an air traffic control source told The Times of India.
The Russian-made AN-32s can fly four hours continuously without refueling and can fly in extreme weather conditions. There are about 100 such aircraft in use at present in the military.