Indian Air Force Locates Missing An-32 Aircraft After 8 Years

Extensive Search and Rescue Operations Lead to Discovery at 3400m Depth in the Bay of Bengal

In a significant development, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has located the An-32 aircraft that went missing over the Bay of Bengal in 2016. The transport aircraft, with 29 personnel on board, disappeared during a routine courier flight from Tambaram Air Force Station in Chennai to Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Despite extensive Search and Rescue operations launched in 2016, involving the IAF, Navy, and Coast Guard, no traces of the missing aircraft or personnel were initially found. Recently, the National Institute of Ocean Technology, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, utilized an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) equipped with deep-sea exploration capabilities to search the last known location of the An-32.

Operating at a depth of 3400m, the AUV employed advanced technologies, including multi-beam SONAR, synthetic aperture SONAR, and high-resolution photography. The analysis of search images revealed debris from a crashed aircraft on the seafloor, approximately 140 nautical miles from the Chennai coast, confirming the presence of the An-32 (K-2743).

The search and rescue efforts back in 2016 marked the largest operation in the history of the IAF. With the air traffic controllers losing radar contact approximately 280 km out at sea from Chennai, the aircraft reportedly plunged from 23,000 feet. The discovery of the wreckage brings closure to the mystery surrounding the missing An-32, concluding an eight-year-long search mission.

Blogger: Umesh Mahabalashetti 

The Founder of SSMDBP Business 

Technologies Bangalore