New Delhi: A long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft, of Indian Navy, was deployed on Tuesday, as a part of a massive search operation to trace an AN-32 transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force. The Russian-origin transport, aircraft AN-32, with 13 people on board, went missing around thickly-forested Menchuka in Arunachal Pradesh on Monday afternoon around 33 minutes after taking off from Jorhat in Assam for Menchuka near the border with China.
A fleet of fixed-wing aircraft and choppers were deployed to locate the missing Antonov AN-32 aircraft in the mountainous terrain in and around Menchuka. According to the officials, ground troops have also been deployed to carry out a search operation.
Navy Spokesperson, Capt. D K Sharma Sharma said the P8i aircraft took off from INS Rajali in Tamil Nadu's Arakonam around 1 PM to join the search and rescue operation to trace the missing AN-32. Capt. Sharma also stated the P8i aircraft, will carry out search operation with electro-optical and Infra-Red sensors.
"The P8i aircraft has a very powerful Synthetic Aperture Radar which shall be utilized during the SAR sweeps to locate the missing @IAF_MCC #AN32," he tweeted
The P-8I, manufactured by Boeing, is a long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft, and at present, Navy has eight of them.
A total of eight aircrews and five passengers were on board the AN-32 aircraft and that the IAF is coordinating with Indian Army as well as various government and civil agencies to locate the missing aircraft. The IAF has deployed C-130J, and AN-32 aircraft besides, two Mi-17 choppers, while the Indian Army has pressed into service advance light helicopters to locate the missing, Antonov AN-32 aircraft.
The AN-32 is a Russian origin, aircraft and the IAF currently operates a sizeable number of it. It is a twin-engine turboprop transport aircraft. An AN-32 aircraft had crashed near a village in West Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh in June 2009 in which 13 defense personnel were killed.
The aircraft had crashed over the Rinchi Hill above Heyo village, about 30 km from Mechuka. In July 2016, an AN-32 aircraft went missing while taking off from Chennai for Port Blair with 29 people on board.
The aircraft could not be traced following weeks of massive search operations covering 2,17,800 square nautical miles by multiple aircraft. Months later, an IAF court of inquiry concluded that it was unlikely that the missing personnel on board the aircraft would have survived the accident.
