RAW deploys air asset to trace missing AN-32 plane
NEW DELHI, July 26, 2016, DHNS
The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) has deployed one of its sophisticated surveillance planes to look for the Indian Air Force’s missing AN-32 aircraft.
A surveillance aircraft of the Aviation Research Centre — the air surveillance unit of the RAW — flew for five hours over the Bay of Bengal looking for the AN-32, which disappeared from the sky minutes after taking off from Tambaram air base in Chennai on Friday morning.
There is no way of knowing which ARC asset was deployed for the search, but the intelligence agency has in its inventory an Israeli aircraft (Astra) with synthetic aperture radar that can see through the monsoon cloud. While 19 aircraft and 17 ships are searching the high seas between Tamil Nadu and Andaman round the clock, the Defence Ministry has also roped in the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) in the pursuit of a breakthrough.
Unfortunately for the military, Olympic Canyon, a deep sea survey vessel owned by the Reliance Industries, is not available this time.
The vessel, which was instrumental in retrieving the mortal remains of the three-member Indian Coast Guard crew from a crashed Dornier last year, is in Norway and would not be available in a short notice.
The Defence Ministry now looks for ships of similar capability in the vicinity.
The wreckage of the Dornier and mortal remains of its crew were recovered from a depth of 950 mt in July 2015 — a month after the crash — when the aircraft’s location beacon was about to die.
For the AN-32, the search needs to be carried out at a depth of 3.5 km, which is more challenging.
Meanwhile, IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha said a thorough enquiry would be conducted to ascertain what led to the unfortunate event.
“Events like these are painful reminders of the inherent risks which our brave personnel face in the execution of our daily missions. A thorough enquiry will be conducted to ascertain exactly what led to this unfortunate event,” Raha said in a statement issued on Monday.
Underwater search soon
With no clue during the surface search of the missing AN-32 flight, defence authorities on Monday said they were mulling over underwater search operations, DHNS reports from Chennai.
They said help of private and government agencies may be taken to locate the IAF plane which had 29 passengers on board.
Inspector General Rajan Bargotra, Commander Coast Guard Region (East), briefing the mediapersons here, said the surface search in the sea, which entered fourth day, to locate the aircraft has been extended to 300 nautical miles southeasterly direction off Chennai coast with the help of the Navy and Coast Guard ships. “Since weather has improved, we have extended and intensified our search and rescue operations,” he said.
The Eastern Naval Command (ENC) had deployed two P8i long-range maritime patrol aircraft with advanced electro-optics and radars, two Dornier aircraft and 13 ships with integral helicopters for the search operations.
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