Flt Lt Kunal (27), whose family is from Nigdi in Pimpri Chinchwad area, was a navigating officer with the 33 Squadron of the IAF, which is a transport squadron under the Southern Air Command and is located at Air Force Station Sulur in Tamil Nadu.

It is two years since the AN-32 transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF), which was on a weekly flight from Chennai to Port Blair with 29 onboard, went missing on the morning of July 22. But for Rajendra Barpatte and Vidya, whose son, Flight Lieutenant Kunal, was the flight navigator on the plane, several questions remain unanswered as they seek closure.

Flt Lt Kunal (27), whose family is from Nigdi in Pimpri Chinchwad area, was a navigating officer with the 33 Squadron of the IAF, which is a transport squadron under the Southern Air Command and is located at Air Force Station Sulur in Tamil Nadu. There were 29 people onboard the AN-32, including the crew members. A massive search was conducted in the Bay of Bengal by the Air Force, Navy and the Coast Guard following the incident.

What had come as a shock for the Barpatte family was a letter they received from the office of Assistant Vice Chief of the IAF on August 26, 2016, seeking their consent for presumption of demise of their son. The Barpatte couple along with the kin of six IAF officers on the plane had refused to sign the letter. On September 15 that year, the IAF declared all the 29 persons onboard were presumed dead. IAF officials had clarified that the letter was an administrative procedure and the search will continue.

Flt Lt Kunal’s father, a retired scientist from the Central Institute of Road Transport, said, “In the months after the incident we had asked several questions to the IAF. Those questions were: what exactly happened to the aircraft, its overall condition, delay in starting the rescue operation despite the fact that authorities had received clear radar signals, failure of the Emergency Locater Beacon and many more things. The answers were given by the IAF after several months after we wrote to them repeatedly and the answers were all stereotypical and bureaucratic. We are not at all satisfied by these answers. We even received a mail asking if we were satisfied by the answers, as if they wanted to ask if we will stop asking. But I will soon be writing to them with my counter-queries.”

He added, “We fear that something like this will happen again as there are over 100 AN-32s in operation. The then Air Chief has said that upgrade of 40 out of the 100 aircraft was done in Ukraine from 2011 onwards. The remaining aircraft are being upgraded in India. As the lost aircraft was upgraded in India, we need to ask questions about those remaining aircraft which have been upgraded here. Does the IAF have any time-bound plan to replace the aging AN 32 fleet, which they keep calling their workhorse? How many precious lives are going to be lost before the authorities take any steps?”

The Barpattes have one more grievance. “Flt Lt Kunal had taken a housing loan from the State Bank of India, which was disbursed and we had even purchased the flat. After his death, we had requested the bank if we could be given some concession on the loan repayment like if the interest could be waived off. We are not asking for the entire loan to be waived off. But the bank has refused to do so. It is disheartening to get that reply. Both my wife and I are now retired. This is yet another battle that we are fighting,” he said.