The IAF AN-32 plane with 29 on board which went missing after it took off from Chennai was to have landed at around 11.20 am on Saturday. The AN-32 is the main workhorse of IAF to ferry troops and supplies to forward areas.
A massive search operation has been launched by the air force, Navy and Coast Guard. Here is the complete timeline of the ill-fated plane so far as projected by the TOI:
July 22, Friday:
- 8:00 AM (IST):
The plane took off from the Tambaram air base near Chennai and was heading for Port Blair. Its estimated time of arrival in Port Blair was 11.30am
- 8:15 AM (IST):
The last contact with the plane, which has mostly service personnel on board, was around 15 minutes after take-off.
The plane feared missing with 29 people aboard including 6 aircrew (2 Pilots, 1 Navigator, 3 officers), 11 other IAF personnel (1 officer), 2 Army jawans, 1 Coast Guard sailor, 1 sailor & 8 naval civilians. One of those in the missing aircraft is Flight Lt Deepika, a lady officer of the IAF. She was on her way to Port Blair to join her husband who is a Coast Guard officer.
- 04:00 PM (IST):
Massive hunt underway for the plane started. The Navy has involved one P8I aircraft and one Donier aircraft and four ships — Karmukh, Gharial, Jyoti and Kuthar – for its search operation.
- 04:30 PM (IST):
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar briefed by IAF chief on the missing aircraft. Naval submarine diverted for detecting underwater transmissions of missing AN-32 aircraft in Bay of Bengal.
- 06:44 PM (IST):
National Disaster Response Force asked to assist the Air Force, the Navy and the Coast Guard to locate the missing aircraft on Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s request. NDRF will provide manpower from its Chennai base.
- 10:35 PM (IST):
The Navy, Indian Air Force and Coast Guard continued search and rescue operations throughout the night for the missing AN-32 aircraft in the Bay of Bengal.
July 23, Saturday:
- 11:45 AM (IST):
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar visits Chennai to monitor search operation for missing IAF plane AN-32. Defence minister Manohar Parrikar takes aerial survey after being briefed about the search and rescue operations at Naval Air station INS Rajali.
- 02:43 PM (IST):
Defence minister Manohar Parrikar leaves for New Delhi from INS Rajali at Arakkonam after aerial survey over Bay of Bengal.
- 06:43 PM (IST):
Aircrafts and choppers launched for search and rescue operations return to Tambaram air base due to low visibility.
- 06:45 PM (IST):
The Indian space agency (Isro) will be using its Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT) that can see through the clouds to locate the missing Indian Air Force (IAF) plane.
- 09:00 PM (IST):
The search ops have been intensified within “probable crash zone” which spans 400 nautical miles by 200 nautical miles, around the last known radar contact with the AN-32 aircraft.
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Stay tuned for more updates.
