17 ships seach for IAF AN-32 wreckage

July 25, 2016 10:43

There is a coordinated search going on between Indian Navy, IAF and coast guard: Navy chief Sunil Lanba on missing IAF AN-32.

Talking to media persons on Monday, Admiral Lanba said: "There are a total of 17 ships, 13 from navy and 4 from the Coast guard."

"Search areas have been designated. Over 250 hours of aircraft sorties have been flown."

"Its an ongoing search, we kept a close liaison with family members of those who were onboard."

The search has been intensified after satellite imagery pointed to possible floating objects but nothing has been found yet.

"Indigenous imagery satellite did give us some pointers to possible floating objects. The area indicated are being searched intensively by ships and aircraft. Nothing sighted as yet," defence sources said.

The plane left the Tambaram air base near Chennai at 8.30 am on Friday and was to have landed at Port Blair around 11.45 am. It fell off the radar at 9.12 am, 280 km east of Chennai. It made the last radio contact at 8:46 am, 16 minutes after take-off, when the pilot reported that "everything is normal".

Air Force and Navy officials said the search was continuing but no signs of any wreckage had so far been found.

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