New Delhi: A Rs 5,000 crore project of the Ministry of Earth Sciences for deep sea exploration of polymetallic nodules has by chance unearthed the debris of India Air Force (IAF) AN-32 aircraft that went missing eight years ago with 29 personnel on board.
The IAF issued a statement confirming that the debris had been found.
The AN-32 aircraft with registration K-2743 had gone missing over the Bay of Bengal on 22 July 2016 during an operational mission after taking off from Tambaram, Chennai, for Port Blair.
A total of 29 personnel were on board this flight and a large-scale search and rescue operation could not locate the missing personnel or the aircraft debris.
The search was eventually called off after two months and the families were notified that everybody on board was being considered deceased, a protocol necessary for release of final payments to the next of kin.
The IAF said the National Institute of Ocean Technology, which functions under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, had recently deployed an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) with deep sea exploration capability at the last known location of the missing AN-32.
This search was conducted at a depth of 3,400 metres using multiple payloads, including a multi-beam SONAR (Sound Navigation and Ranging) — a synthetic aperture SONAR and high resolution photography.
Analysis of search images had indicated the presence of debris of a crashed aircraft on the sea bed approximately 140 nautical miles (approximately 310 km) from the Chennai coast, the IAF said in a statement.
It added that 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(ed) in the same area, points to the debris as possibly belonging to the crashed IAF An-32 (K-2743),” the IAF said.
Defence sources said they would now look at retrieving the remains if possible to bring closure to the families.
They said efforts would also be made to search for parts of the aircraft so that the reason behind the accident could be ascertained.
“But one is not sure if this is possible but we will definitely look into retrieving whatever is possible based on capabilities here and abroad,” a source said.
How was the wreckage found?
Sources said the National Institute of Ocean Technology was running a pilot project over the last three months to find polymetallic nodules.
The eventual plan was to have the capability to send a human being at a depth of 5,000 metres as part of deep sea exploration, a joint effort with friendly countries looking at deep-sea mining.
Sources said the next phase would have included exploration south of an island nation with which India has close ties.
Sources further said that around last week, the vessel’s payload while doing its recce, found a strange looking round shaped metal object.
Multiple pictures were taken and it was decided to explore the area for one more day.
Sources said that earlier this week, the debris of an aircraft was found which after analysis with the IAF, was revealed to be that of the missing AN-32.
A previous version of this report mistakenly said that the aircraft had taken off from Port Blair whereas it had taken off from Tambaram, Chennai. The error is regretted.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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