NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force (IAF) has located the wreckage of a transport aircraft that went missing nearly seven-and-a-half years ago.
The wreckage was found at a depth of approximately 3.4 km in the Bay of Bengal, 310 km off the coast of Chennai. The discovery was made through the analysis of images captured by an underwater vehicle deployed by the National Institute of Ocean Technology.
The defence ministry confirmed that the wreckage belongs to an An-32 aircraft, stating, “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.”
The missing aircraft, with registration number K-2743, disappeared on July 22, 2016, during a mission. It had 29 personnel on board. Despite extensive search efforts involving aircraft and ships, no traces of the missing personnel or the wreckage were found until now.
The National Institute of Ocean Technology, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, recently deployed an autonomous underwater vehicle with deep-sea exploration capability to search for the missing An-32 aircraft. The search was conducted at a depth of 3,400 metres using advanced technology such as multi-beam SONAR, synthetic aperture SONAR, and high-resolution photography.
The analysis of the search images revealed the presence of aircraft debris on the sea bed, approximately 140 nautical miles (3.10 km) from the Chennai coast.
This discovery brings some closure to the families of the 29 personnel who were on board the aircraft. The Indian Air Force and the relevant authorities will now work towards understanding the cause of the crash and honoring the memory of those who lost their lives.
(With inputs from agencies)