IAF Plane With 29 On Board Goes Missing Over Bay Of Bengal

Chennai: An Indian Air Force (IAF) plane AN-32 went missing on Friday morning. The aircraft was carrying 29 people including a captain, a co-pilot of Flying Officer rank, navigator of Flight Lieutenant rank and 12 personnel from the IAF, one each from army, navy and the coast guard and eight civilians who are family members of service personnel.

According to officials, the aircraft took off from the Air Force Station Tambaram near Chennai at around 8:30 am and was supposed to land at Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar Islands at 11:45 am. It was last seen on the radar at around 9:15 am and the Chennai air traffic radar show the last known location of the plane at 151 nautical miles east of Chennai. It is heard that the last radio communication was at 8:45 am and had fuel to fly for around four hours.

A massive search operation was launched by the IAF, Coast Guard and Navy. A submarine has also diverted to locate the missing aircraft. More details are awaited.