New Delhi, January 12
More than seven years after an Indian Air Force (IAF) plane went missing with 29 persons on board over the Bay of Bengal, its wreckage has been located at a depth of 3.4 km under the sea.
The wreckage of the crashed AN-32 transport plane, bearing tail No. K-2743, was located 310 km east of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, a statement of the Ministry of Defence said on Friday.
Located At depth of 3.4 km in Bay of Bengal
- On July 22, 2016, IAF plane lost contact after take-off; was on way from Chennai to Port Blair
- Wreckage couldn’t be traced despite search op; National Institute of Ocean Technology recently launched an underwater vehicle
- Using multi-beam SONAR & high-resolution images, wreckage was found at a depth of 3,400 metres in Bay of Bengal, 300 km off Chennai
The Soviet-manufactured plane had taken off around 8.30 am from the Tambaram Air Force Station in Chennai on July 22, 2016. It last contacted the Chennai Air Traffic Controller at 8.46 am, 16 minutes after the take-off.
It was scheduled to land around 11 am at Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Soon after the crash, a search and rescue operation was launched using aircraft and ships, but none of the 29 persons on board or the wreckage could be found.
The IAF today said the National Institute of Ocean Technology, which functions under the aegis of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, had recently deployed an autonomous underwater vehicle with deep-sea exploration capability.
The last known location of the missing AN-32 was used and the search was conducted at a depth of 3,400 metres using multiple payloads, including a multi-beam sound navigation and ranging (SONAR), synthetic aperture SONAR and high-resolution photography.
“The search images were scrutinised and found to be in conformity with an AN-32 aircraft. This discovery at the probable crash site, with no other recorded history of any other missing aircraft report in the same area, points to the wreckage as possibly belonging to the crashed IAF AN-32 (K-2743),” the MoD said.
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 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.