An AN-32 cargo aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) with 29 people on board went missing earlier today. Sources said the plane went off the radar at around 9:12 am when it was on its way to Port Blair from the Tambaram Air Base near Chennai.
The IAF currently operates a fleet of 105 AN-32s and the plane forms the backbone of the transport arm of the force. The entire fleet is currently undergoing modernisation, with upgrades including modern avionics, new oxygen systems, etc.
Since the induction of the AN-32 into the Indian Air Force in the mid 1980s, the plane has been involved in a number of accidents.
Here is a quick look at incidents involving the AN-32:
March 22, 1986: The first major air incident; one aircraft crashes in Jammu and Kashmir.
March 25, 1986: Another AN-32, on its way to Jamnagar from Muscat and was lost in the Arabian Sea. The wreckage was never recovered.
1989: AN-32 owned by an intelligence outfit disintegrated mid-air while flying from Delhi to its base in Charbatia, Orissa.
1991-92: Aircraft crashes near Trivandrum. The ill-fated plane had taken off from Tambaram.
March 26, 1992: An AN-32 aircraft was lost in the hills near Jorhat, Assam.
April 1, 1992: In one of the worst accidents involving the aircraft, two AN-32 aircraft collided mid-air while flying in formation over Khanna, Punjab.
March 7, 1999: 21 people, including 18 men from the force were killed when an AN-32 crashed near the Indira Gandhi International Airport. This was the first time so many defence personnel were killed in a single crash. Among the victims were 10 officers, four of them Wing Commanders.
June 9, 2009: An AN-32 crashed in Arunachal Pradesh killing all the 13 defence personnel on board.
January 2012: An AN-32 was damaged during heavy landing in Jorhat.
September 20, 2014: Aircraft with 11 people on board crash-landed at the Chandigarh Airport. The aircraft caught fire as it crashlanded but the blaze was doused by fire tenders inside the airport premises. A few people on board the aircraft suffered minor burn injuries.