Chennai: The Russian-built twin-engine AN-32 is the IAF’s workhorse and has been used for transporting troops and supplies to forward areas.
While some officers maintained that the plane had undergone an upgrade in Ukraine, widely circulated reports sometime back had talked about the problems being faced by the multi-million dollar upgrade programme there.
The AN-32 can fly for up to four hours without refueling. According to sources, IAF has a fleet of over 100 AN-32s and their safety record has been fairly high. The last AN-32 crash had happened in 2009 when an aircraft went down soon after taking off from the Machuka advanced landing ground (ALG) in Arunachal Pradesh. The biggest casualty incident involving an AN-32 had happened in Delhi in 1999 in which 21 had perished.
Meanwhile, Coast Guard said their reconnaissance Dornier aircraft has reached the site from where the AN-32 had sent out its last signals. “Our Dornier (plane) has reached the site where the signals were sent by the (IAF) aircraft for the last time. We are looking for clues,” said a senior Coast Guard official.
The Coast Guard has rushed four ships — ICGS Sagar and Samudra Pehredar from Chennai and ICGS Rajshree and ICGS Rajveer from Port Blair — to the spot. Another ships ICGS Vishwasth has been on stand-by at Prot Blair. “The ships should reach the spot by night. But the rough sea is making the operations difficult,” the official added.
