The wreckage of a transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force has been found at a depth of about 3.4 kilometres in the Bay of Bengal after almost seven and a half years. There were 29 personnel on board the missing plane.
The Defense Ministry said that a recent examination of photographs taken by the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) of the National Institute of Ocean Technology has revealed that the debris found in the sea 310 km off the Chennai coast is that of the AN-32 aircraft.
Was Not Revealed In The Campaign
The ministry said that the photographs were examined and found to be consistent with the AN-32 aircraft. This discovery at the possible crash site, with no reports of any other aircraft missing in the area, points to it possibly being the wreckage of a crashed Indian Air Force An-32 aircraft. The Indian Air Force AN-32 aircraft with registration number K-2743 disappeared over the Bay of Bengal during a mission on 22 July 2016. There were 29 personnel on board the plane.
A major operation was launched in search of this aircraft, in which many aircraft and ships were deployed, but neither the wreckage of the missing airliner nor the personnel on board could be located.
Search At 3400 Meter Depth
The National Institute of Ocean Technology functions under the Ministry of Earth Sciences. It had recently deployed an AUV with deep-sea exploration capability at the last known location of the missing AN-32 aircraft. The Defense Ministry said the discovery was made at a depth of 3,400 meters using multiple instruments, including multi-beam sonar (sound navigation and ranging), synthetic aperture sonar and high-resolution photography. It said analysis of search photographs indicated the presence of debris from a crashed aircraft on the seabed about 140 nautical miles (310 km) off the Chennai coast.
