AN-32 aircraft
Nearly seven and a half years after the aircraft with 29 people on board went missing, the debris of an Indian Air Force (IAF) transport aircraft has been found at a depth of about 3.4 km in the Bay of Bengal.
Debris found 310 km off the Chennai coast
According to the ministry of defense, an examination of photos taken by the National Institute of Ocean Technology’s autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) has confirmed that the debris, which is situated 310 kilometers off the coast of Chennai, is indeed the remains of an AN-32 aircraft.
“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 ministry said in a statement.
The aircraft goes missing…
The Indian Air Force’s An-32 aircraft, registered K-2743, vanished on a mission on July 22, 2016, over the Bay of Bengal. There were twenty-nine people inside the plane.
The wreckage of the plane and any missing personnel could not be found despite extensive search and rescue operations including ships and aircraft.
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National Institute of Ocean Technology conducts search operation
The Ministry of Earth Sciences oversees the National Institute of Ocean Technology, which recently sent an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) equipped with deep-sea investigation capabilities to the last known site of the lost An-32 aircraft.
“This search was conducted at a depth of 3,400 metres using multiple payloads, including a multi-beam SONAR (Sound Navigation and Ranging), synthetic aperture SONAR and high-resolution photography,” the defence ministry said.
“Analysis of search images had indicated the presence of debris of a crashed aircraft on the sea bed approximately 140 nautical miles (310 km) from the Chennai coast,” it said.
