There was no sign of the Indian Air Force transporter aircraft that went missing two days ago with 29 people on board, a spokesman for the air force said.
A massive search for the aircraft entered its third day on Sunday with 18 vessels from the navy and the coast guard, as well as eight aircraft, including dorniers and helicopters.
Search operations were ongoing, Vice Admiral HCS Bisht of the Indian Navy said. "The only challenge we are facing is of monsoon conditions, rough seas and another factor is depth in the area," he said.
The Antonov-32 transporter took off from the southern city of Chennai on early Friday on a three-hour flight to Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal. It made its last radio contact about 15 minutes after take off from the Tambaram Air Force station, air force spokesman Anupam Banerjee said. No debris or wreckage has been sighted, Banerjee said.
The Indian space agency plans to use its Radar Imaging Satellite that can see through the clouds to locate the missing plane, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman AS Kiran Kumar was quoted as saying.
The people on board included six crew members, 15 personnel of the army, navy and coastguard, and eight members of their families.
"I feel my father is safe. I want all of you to pray they all come back unharmed," Ashutosh Singh, son of Bhupath Singh, who was on the missing AN-32 aircraft, said in an appeal.
The AN-32 had reportedly developed at least three minor technical snags earlier this month. A Sindhughosh-class submarine was also diverted from an “ongoing mission” to “seek underwater transmissions from the locator beacon of the aircraft” but there was no trace of the ill-fated medium-lift aircraft. “The search will continue through the night,” said an officer.
“The AN-32, which was slated to land at Port Blair at 11.30 am, was observed to have carried out a left turn with rapid loss of height from its flying altitude of 23,000 feet. There was no Mayday call. The endurance of the aircraft was four hours and 15 minutes,“ said the officer.
The twin-engine AN-32, which was from the 33 Squadron at the Sulur airbase, had a six-member crew of two pilots (Flight Lieutenant Pushpendra Badsara and Flying Officer Pankaj Kumar Nanda), a navigator (Flight Lieutenant Kunal Barpatte), a flight engineer and two technicians.
The passengers on board, who were all headed for the Tri-Service Andaman and Nicobar Island Command, included a woman IAF officer, Flight Lieutenant Deepika Sheoran, who is married to a Coast Guard officer based in Port Blair.
The others included eight civilians from the naval armament depot in Vizag, five IAF non-combatants, four airmen, two Army soldiers, a defence security corps jawan and a sailor each from Navy and Coast Guard.
The sturdy AN-32s have been IAF workhorses in ferrying troops and cargo to forward areas since they were first inducted in 1984. Though they have a relatively good flight safety record, the AN-32s are certainly old despite their ongoing life-extension and upgrade refits.
