LAST SEEN AN-32 lost height rapidly from 23,000ft, about 280km off Chennai

NEW DELHI/ CHENNAI: An Indian air force plane carrying 29 personnel went missing over the Bay of Bengal on its way from Chennai to the Andaman Nicobar Islands on Friday, triggering an expansive search involving helicopters, warships and a submarine.

The Russian-origin Antonov-32 plane disappeared about 280 km off the coast of Chennai from where it had taken off at 8.30 am. It was due to arrive around midday at Port Blair — about 1,400km away — which hosts India’s only tri-service command.

The plane was flying 12 air force personnel, one each from the army, navy and coast guard and eight civilians, some of them family members of soldiers. It also had a crew of six. The medium-lift plane, upgraded last year, can fly for four hours and 15 minutes without refuelling.

“The aircraft was observed to have carried out a left turn with rapid loss of height from 23,000 feet,” an Indian Air Force (IAF) official told Hindustan Times.

IAF officials said the missing plane made its last radio contact at 8.46 am and it was last seen on the radar at 9.12 am.

At least four planes, including two P-8I long-range maritime surveillance aircraft, helicopters and 13 warships are scouring the sea looking for the plane.

AN-32 missing; 29 on board

Massive search operation on to trace Chennai to Port Blair plane

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 22

An Indian Air Force transport plane, AN-32, with 29 people on board was reported missing over the Bay of Bengal this morning. The Navy, IAF and the Coast Guard have launched a massive search operation.The plane was among the 64 AN-32s in the IAF fleet that were upgraded and re-equipped under a $400 million contract by the parent manufacturer in Ukraine. The plane, based at Sulur (Coimbatore), had developed defects thrice since July 2, sources confirmed.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)The remaining 40 planes of the AN-32 fleet are to be upgraded from next year at the IAF’s “1 base repair depot Kanpur”. As many as 104 AN-32 aircraft were imported from Soviet Union in phases between 1984 and 1991. The upgrade of these planes, between 25 and 32 years old, is being done to extend their life, allowing the last batch to fly till 2035.The plane had taken off at 8.30 am from the Tambaram air base, Chennai, and was scheduled to land at 11.30 am at the Port Blair naval base in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.The plane was on a routine flight, carrying men and material to Port Blair, and all those on board were either service personnel or civilian staff of the services.The plane last made radio contact with the Chennai Air Traffic Control at 8.46 am, 16 minutes after the take-off. Its radar signal was last seen at 9.12 am. The pilot did not radio the location or sound “Mayday” (crisis) before it was reported missing.A submarine, equipped with the system to pick up signals from the locating beacon of the aircraft, has been diverted to look for the plane.Navy’s P8-I surveillance aircraft has also been pressed into service along with the Dornier surveillance planes of the Navy and the Coast Guard. These carry powerful sensors and send live imagery to the control room.Besides, a dozen naval warships and two Coast Guard vessels have set sail.The IAF has dispatched a C-130-J and an AN-32 for search. The Chennai-Port Blair IAF “courier” flight flies thrice a week.Those on board included six crew, 15 personnel from the IAF, Army, Navy and Coast Guard, and eight civilians who were family members of the personnel. One of the passengers was a woman IAF officer married to a Coast Guard officer based in Port Blair.Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is likely to visit Tambaram air base on Saturday.

(With agency inputs)

Not new to midair scare

Soviet-origin AN-32, said to be a sturdy plane, has been involved in several fatal crashes and instances of structural failure
In 1994, the navigator’s bubbler, which allows him to look at the terrain below, shattered, sucking him out over the Himalayas
A few years ago, the cargo ramp of an AN-32 on Leh-Chandigarh circuit with 42 on board burst open at 25,000 feet
An AN-32 fatally crashed in J-K in 1986; and mid-air collisions were reported near Ludhiana in 1992 and Assam in 2012