The remaining wreckage of the Indian Air Force’s An-32 aircraft, which vanished over the Bay of Bengal in 2016, was found 310 kilometers off the coast of Chennai. The airplane had 29 crew members on board.
The government sent a press statement on Friday stating that photos showed the wreckage of an aircraft crash on the sea floor some 310 kilometers off the coast of Chennai.
After careful examination, it was determined that the search photos corresponded to an An-32 aircraft. The debris may have come from the downed IAF An-32 (K-2743), according to the statement that continued, “given this discovery at the likely crash site and the lack of any other documented history of any other missing aircraft report in the same area.”
An IAF Antonov An-32 took off from Chennai’s Tambaram Air Force Station early on July 22, 2016. The cargo plane, which was traveling to Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands three times a week, had 29 passengers and staff members.
Around eight in the morning, the aircraft took off from Chennai with the intention of landing at the Indian Naval Air Station, or INS Utkrosh, in Port Blair.
The aircraft broke off communication soon after takeoff and vanished from the radar as it passed over the Bay of Bengal.
The military forces responded to the disappearance by initiating the greatest search and rescue operation for a missing jet over the Indian Ocean.
The Indian Air Force ultimately gave up on September 15, 2016. The air force claimed in a letter to the relatives of the 29 passengers on board the An-32 K2743 that it had been unable to find the missing aircraft and was forced to declare the persons on board “presumed dead.”
