India launches search for missing miliary plane
July 22, 2016
India's surveillance aircraft and navy and coastguard ships began the search in the Bay of Bengal Friday, after an IAF Antonov-32 transport disappeared from radar shortly after taking off from the southern city of Chennai on its way to Port Blair, capital of the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
The last contact with the Russian-built transport plane, which was carrying service personnel and six crew members, was made around 15 minutes after take-off from Chennai, an IAF spokesman said.
Nitin Wakanker, a spokesman for India's defense ministry, said the flight was supposed to last three hours but there was no contact nearly three hours after its scheduled arrival. Wakanker said the transport carries enough fuel for four hours of flight.
"A search operation is on," Wing Commander Anupam Banerjee said. "The plane was airborne at 8:30 a.m. (0300 UTC) and was supposed to land at Port Blair at 11:30 a.m."
The Indian Air Force has around 100 AN-32s in its fleet. In one of India's worst aviation disasters, an AN-32 crashed near a New Delhi airport in 1999. Twenty people on board died and three civilians were burned to death.
jar/kms (AP, AFP)