Chennai: The Indian Air Force has constituted a Court of Inquiry into the mysterious disappearance of the military aircraft.
The Russian-made Antonov 32 aircraft were inducted into the IAF transport fleet in 1984 and IAF has over 100 AN-32 in its inventory. Officials maintained that mid-life upgrade and life extension of the fleet commenced in 2010 and the 40 aircraft upgraded arrived back from Keiv in Ukraine from 2011-2015. However, 10 aircraft were upgraded at IAF’s Kanpur-based 1 Base Repair Depot (BRD). “The plane, which was on a routine courier service, took off at about 0830 hours from Tambaram and was scheduled to land at Port Blair at 1145 hours but it is overdue,” IAF spokesperson Wing Commander Anupam Banerjee said.
The twin-engine aircraft, known for its sturdy and safe track-record, could not make any Mayday call before its disappearance. The four crew members were identified as – flight lieutenant Badsara, flying officer Nandal, flight lieutenant Kunal and junior warrant officer Ranjan.
A massive search and rescue operation has been launched by the IAF, Navy and Coast Guard, deploying one submarine, eight aircraft, and 13 ships. And efforts are on to trace aircraft by its emergency locator beacon (ELB), which immediately gets activated moment aircraft contact water.
While the IAF has pressed into service a C130 plane along with two AN-32, the Navy has deployed two P8i maritime surveillance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft from the strategically important Port Blair, home to India’s only tri-service command.
Navy spokesperson Captain D.K. Sharma said, “Navy has been deployed in full swing in the Bay of Bengal for the search and rescue operation.” From Port Blair, three Coast Guard vessels Vishwast, Rajveer and Rajshree and two Dornier aircraft and two ships Sagar and Samudra Pehredar from Chennai pressed into the search and rescue operation. Indian Navy has deployed its ships named INS Sahyadri, Rajput, Ranvijay, Kamorta, Kirch, Karmuk, Kora, Kuthar, Shakti, Jyot, Ghariyal and Sukanya from its Vizag and Port Blair bases.