India
Parrikar visited Tambaram air base near Chennai today.
Updated : Jul 23, 2016, 12:14 PM IST
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar visited Tambaram air base near Chennai on Saturday after an IAF AN 32 aircraft of the Indian Air Force went missing with 29 personnel on board. He
He boarded an aircraft from Tambaram for an aerial survey of the operations.
Efforts on to trace IAF AN 32 aircraft and our Service personnel on board.
— Manohar Parrikar (@manoharparrikar) July 22, 2016
Reached Tambaram to monitor operations on IAF AN 32 aircraft.
— Manohar Parrikar (@manoharparrikar) July 23, 2016
Parrikar, who was briefed by IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, got a detailed briefing on the search and rescue operations being undertaken by the Navy, Air Force and the Coast Guard, official sources said.
The aircraft went missing over the Bay of Bengal on its way from near Chennai to Port Blair, raising concern over its fate.
The massive search operation has been launched for tracking the upgraded plane which made the last radio contact at 0846 hours, 16 minutes after take off from Tambaram air base.
The Indian Navy has deployed SAROps 18 Naval & ICG ships with P8I, C130 & Dornier aircrafts to locate the plane.
#SAROps 18 Naval & ICG ships (+1sm) deployed with various aircraft incl P8I, C130 & Dorniers to locate missing AN 32 @SpokespersonMoD
— SpokespersonNavy (@indiannavy) July 23, 2016
A massive search and rescue operation has been launched by IAF, Navy and Coast Guard, deploying one submarine, eight aircraft and 13 ships for tracking the upgraded plane which made the last radio contact at 0846 hours, 16 minutes after take off from Tambaram air base. Four ships, which were deployed in the Bay of Bengal on different missions, have been diverted to the search area and eight ships of Eastern Fleet with Fleet Commander embarked onboard which are on return passage from the South China Sea are also proceeding at best speed to join the search operations.
Flying with the call sign AF-330, the missing aircraft was part of the 33 Squadron which is based in Sulu,
With agency inputs.