Chennai: Operation Talash has been intensified after domestic research vessel Samudra ratnakar from Geological Survey of India, reportedly located objects which looked like debris of the missing IAF courier flight AN-32, 3500 metres below sea level.
According to sources, the finding of debris, like parts on the sea bed, which was surveyed 26 years back, has raised hopes and the operation has been further geared up. Teams are looking for more objects which could be parts of the aircraft.
Sources say the vessel will once again re-visit the scanned spots to find if there are any other aircraft parts which can be identified. This is the first suspected sighting of parts of missing aircraft which is believed to have crashed into the sea.
The vessel was assigned to search 16,000 sq.kilometre of sea, 270 km off the Chennai coast. The IAF courier flight AN-32 with 29 people on board which took off from Tambaram at 8.30 am on July 22 for Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, was declared missing after it lost radar contact around 8.45 am, 280 km east of Chennai.
