An Indian Air Force’s plane An-32 with 29 military personnel on board went missing after it took off from Tambaram air base near Chennai on Friday morning.
The plane took off at 8:30 from Tambaram for Port Blair and was to have landed around 11:20 am. The last contact to Russian-made AN-32 was made around 15 minutes after take-off for Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar chain of islands.
The plane has an emergency beacon locator, which gets activated if the plane gets crashed. The surveillance planes and ships are searching for the aircraft which was carrying service personnel to the military base near the Malacca Straits.
Teams of Indian Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard have been sent in the search operation to find the missing aircraft. Four ships – Jyoti, Kuthar, Karmukh and Gharial and a Dornier Aircraft have also been sent in the search operation.
4 ships deployed in Bay of Bengal diverted for SAR Kuthar Karmukh Gharial & Jyoti + 2 each P8I& DO pic.twitter.com/vZqtCgOgEh
— SpokespersonNavy (@indiannavy) July 22, 2016
The Russian-origin AN-32 is a military transport aircraft that has been in service with the Indian Air Force since 1984. The aircraft can fly up to four hours without refuelling and it’s Indian fleet is currently being upgraded with advanced communication systems, avionics, new oxygen system, landing aids and better seats.
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22 July 2016
Avni S. Singh