Debris of a crashed IAF plane traced after over seven years

Chennai: Debris of an Indian Air Force An-32 aircraft (registration K-2743) has been located seven and half years after the plane with 29 personnel on board, went missing over the Bay of Bengal during an op mission on July 22, 2016.

Large-scale search and rescue operations by aircraft and ships could not locate any missing personnel or aircraft debris so far. However, an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUC) with deep sea exploration capability, recently deployed at the last known location of the missing An-32 by the city-based National Institute of Ocean Technology which functions under the aegis of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, has finally traced the debris.

This search was conducted at a depth of 3400 metres using multiple payloads, including a multi-beam SONAR (Sound Navigation and Ranging), synthetic aperture SONAR and high-resolution photography.  Analysis of search images indicated the presence of debris from a crashed aircraft on the sea bed approximately, 140 nautical miles (approximately 310 Km) from the Chennai coast.

 The search images were scrutinised and found to be conforming 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 debris as possibly belonging to the crashed IAF An-32 (K-2743), the Ministry of Defence said today.

– global bihari bureau