India on Friday mounted
a massive search and rescue operation for an Indian Air Force plane that went
missing with 29 people on board over the Bay of Bengal.
With concern mounting
hours after its disappearance, five surveillance aircraft and 13 navy and
coastguard ships launched the search for the aircraft, which vanished shortly
after take-off from the southern city of Chennai.
The aircraft was on its
way to Port Blair, the capital of the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands.
“Full scale search
& rescue launched to look for IAF AN 32 overdue at Port Blair since 1130
hrs. Max assets being deployed at earliest,” the defence ministry tweeted.
The Russian-built
Antonov AN-32 military transport plane was carrying service personnel and six
crew members as it undertook a routine courier service to the Indian islands.
The last contact with
the plane was made around 15 minutes after take-off from Tambaram Air Force
Station on the outskirts of Chennai, an IAF spokesman said.
“A search operation is
on. The plane was airborne at 8:30 am (0300 GMT)and was supposed to land at
Port Blair at 11:30,” Wing Commander Anupam Banerjee said.
No comments:
Post a Comment