IAF AN-32 Transport Plane Goes Missing With 29 People Onboard

An Indian Air Force AN-32 plane enroute to Port Blair from Chennai has gone missing with 29 people on board on Friday morning.

The plane took off from the Tambaram air base near Chennai at 8.30 am, and was supposed to land around 11.20 am. The last contact with the plane was around 15 minutes after take-off.

"It was found missing. As of now, we will term it as overdue," a Navy spokesperson DK Sharma was quoted as saying by NDTV.

The plane has an emergency beacon locator, which usually gets activated if there is a crash. It was a courier flight with mostly service personnel on board.

A massive search operation has been launched by the air force, Navy and Coast Guard in the Bay of Bengal.

The Navy has sent five surveillance aircraft, including a Dornier, and 13 ships to the region at full speed. The ships are Sahyadri, Rajput, Ranvijay, Kamorta, Kirch, Karmuk, Kora, Kuthar, Shakti, Jyoti,  Ghariyal and Sukanya.

There are more than 100 Russian-made AN-32s in service with the IAF. It is an aircraft that can fly for up to four hours without refueling and operate in all weather conditions.