Indian Air Force transport plane with 29 on board missing in Bay of Bengal

Chennai: An IAF transport plane with 20 people on board went missing over the Bay of Bengal shortly after take-off to Port Blair from the Tambaram base Friday morning.

A massive search launched by the IAF, Navy and Coast Guard had not yielded any clue till late at night. The rough seas where the AN-32 aircraft last made its contact at 8.46 am, 16 minutes after take-off, made the search operations difficult, sources said.

How it all unfolded

“The plane is still missing. All efforts are being made to trace the plane and the service personnel travelling on board”, defence minister Manohar Parrikar was quoted as saying by PTI. Navy spokesperson Captain D.K. Sharma said, “Navy has been deployed in full force in the Bay of Bengal for the search and rescue operations”.

According to IAF spokesman Wing Commander Anupam Banerjee, the plane was on a “routine courier service” and was scheduled to land at Port Blair at 11.30 am. The plane was flying at about 23,000 feet when its contact was lost.