The Indian Navy has diverted one submarine to look for the missing plane.

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 22An Indian Air Force (IAF) transport plane, AN-32, is missing over the Bay of Bengal with 29 people on board. The plane, a Soviet manufactured one, had taken off around 8.30 am from the Tambaram air base, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, and was scheduled to land around 11 am at Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.The plane was on routine flight to carry men and material to Port Blair and most of the people on board were service personnel.When the pilot did not radio his approach a search was launched using the assets of the Navy, the IAF and the Coast Guard.Among the 29 persons on board were four IAF officers, including the two pilots and a navigator of the missing plane. The plane had six crew, including the three officers. A fourth officer was among the passengers.Also on board were 10 other IAF personnel, two people from the Indian Army and nine from the navy, among them eight from the civilian staff of the force.A staff member of the Defence Services Corps and one from the Indian Coast Guard were also among those on board.

The Indian Navy has diverted one submarine to look for the missing plane.

The search area is some 200 nautical miles east of Chennai. The Navy’s P8-I surveillance aircraft has been pressed into service along with the Dornier surveillance planes of the Navy and the Coast Guard. Warships are also involved in the search operation. The plane has been declared ‘overdue’ to land. This is first step before the plane is declared missing. The plane was carrying fuel for some four hours.

The AN-32 fleet was imported from Soviet Union in the early 1980s.

The plane was last in contact with Chennai Air Traffic Controller at 8.46 am that is 16 minutes after the take-off from Tambaram. The plane is from the Sulur (Coimbatore) IAR base of the IAF. It was on a routine sortie. The Chennai-Port Blair IAF flight is termed as a ‘çourier’ and flies thrice a week. The plane is equipped with a locating beacon that will emit a signal for rescue teams to follow. The IAF have pressed a C-130-J and an AN-32 plane for search.