New Delhi: An Indian Air Force (IAF) AN-32 plane with 29 people on board is missing after it took off from Chennai on Friday morning.
The plane took off from the Tambaram air base near Chennai for Port Blair at 8.30 am. It was to have landed around 11.20 am.
"It was found missing. As of now, we will term it as overdue," said Navy spokesperson DK Sharma.
Officials say the last contact with the plane, which has mostly service personnel on board, was around 15 minutes after take-off. The plane has an emergency beacon locator, which usually gets activated if there is a crash.
The last contact with it was made 16 minutes later. The Coast Guard and IAF have launched operations to find the aircraft, which had six crew members on board.
The aircraft was carrying service personnel to the strategic islands near the Malacca Straits, where India has a military base.
“A search operation is on. The plane was airborne at 8:30 am and was supposed to land at Port Blair (in the Andaman and Nicobar islands) at 11:30am,” Wing Commander Anupam Banerjee said.
A P-8I surveillance aircraft, one Dornier and four ships were deployed in the search operation and more assets were being dispatched, officials said.
Defence sources said the search operation was being carried out 200 nautical miles from east of Chennai.
The AN-32 is a Russian-origin military transport aircraft that has been in service with the IAF since 1984. The aircraft can fly for up to four hours without refuelling.
India’s AN-32 fleet is currently being upgraded and modernised with advanced avionics, communications systems, landing aids, new oxygen systems and better seats.
A massive search operation has been launched by the air force, Navy and Coast Guard.
The Navy has launched surveillance aircraft to look for the missing plane in the Bay of Bengal. A Dornier aircraft has also been sent and four ships - Karmukh, Gharial, Jyoti and Kuthar - have been diverted to the region at full speed.
The plane was on a courier flight, officials say.There are more than 100 Russian-made AN-32s in service with the IAF. It is an aircraft that can fly for up to four hours without refueling.
