Search on as IAF plane goes missing
posted on Jul 22, 2016 @ 4:03PM
An Indian Air Force (IAF) plane (AN-32) flying from Tambaram in Chennai to Port Blair has gone missing over the Bay of Bengal amid inclement weather this morning. The IAF's AN-32 plane took off from Tambaram in Chennai for Port Blair in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands when it lost radar contact around 8:45 am. Its estimated time of arrival in Port Blair was 11.30 am. As per early report, 29 IAF officials were reportedly on board and there is no trace of any of them as the flight goes off the radar around 11 am. Captain DK Sharma, Navy PRO, said, "The aircraft took off from Tambaram around 8.30 am and goes off the radar after 16 minutes.
It was supposed to land at air station Utkrosh in Port Blair around 11.30 am". The Navy, the Coast Guard and the IAF have launched a joint search and rescue operation. The Navy's has involved one P8I aircraft and one Donier aircraft and four ships Karmukh, Gharial, Jyoti and Kuthar for its search operation.