Chennai, September 1

A remotely operated vehicle of NIOT that can scan sea at a depth of 3,500 metres, will join the search for IAF’s AN-32 aircraft which went missing with 29 crew members on July 22, a Coast Guard official said today.The search operations would move into the third phase next week and the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) had been requested to bring its remotely operated vehicle that can be taken to a depth of 3,500 metres, Coast Guard Commander (East) Inspector General Rajan Bargotra said here.So far two phases — surface search and sub-surface — have been undertaken, but no debris of the transport aircraft that went missing on its way to Port Blair from Tambaram airbase here has been found, he told reporters here on the sidelines of Regional Editors Conference, organised by the Press Information Bureau.“As of now we are into second phase of search operations. Surface search, we have already done that for quite sometime. No debris has been located. Now the focus is on sub-surface search,” he said. — PT