The disappearance of the IAF transport aircraft over the Bay of Bengal on a flight to the Andaman Islands could turn into a tragedy for the Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard personnel on board if the rescue efforts do not bear fruit. With no debris in sight yet on Saturday, there was hope yet of miraculous survival and the search circle, involving planes, ships and a submarine, has been widened to cover parts of the Indian Ocean too. However, most recent experiences with aircraft going off the radar while flying over the sea have proved to be exasperating hunts for a needle in a haystack. In fact, the announcement that the three-nation (Malaysia, Australia and China) search for Flight MH370, which went mysteriously off course on March 8, 2014, has been virtually given up after scanning around 1,10,000 sq. km of ocean and spending around Rs 900 crore.
The Antonov-32 has been the workhorse of the IAF, serving in remote places and boasting a very good aviation record since this is only the third possible mishap reported in about 32 years of operations, the previous two having occurred seven years ago. This particular aircraft was, however, somewhat suspect as three faults had been reported in July alone. But, being an aircraft upgraded recently in trouble-torn Ukraine, which is in conflict with Russia, where planes of this “bullock cart” fleet have to go for refitting, the IAF may have been betting on its airworthiness to send it on the long haul to the Andamans, a strategic tri-services base of immense importance to India. Notwithstanding the financial difficulties of replacing ageing fleets and the bureaucratic tangles involved in selection, it stands to reason that the more remote the areas served, the more efficient must be the fleet.
The government should also be planning well ahead in dealing with the AN-32s, which serve such a crucial purpose in logistical servicing of our faraway islands. Not only the tri-services command in Port Blair but also the airbase in Car Nicobar — an island nearer to Indonesia than to the Indian mainland — highlights the strategic importance of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago. Its people, too, deserve better connectivity to the mainland. It is in these areas that the inadequacy of our ability to prioritise gets shown up often. Of immediate concern will, of course, be the search. Not even profitable international commercial aviation operators have yet answered why it is not possible for aircraft fitted with modern communications systems to maintain GPS recordings at every moment of their flight and transmit them continuously to systems at ATCs so that the last known position would at least be accurately available. Right now, we keep our fingers crossed as the sea is trawled for the missing aircraft.
