Nearly one and half months after an AN-32 transport plane went missing, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has informed relatives of Service personnel on board the ill-fated aircraft that they are “presumed dead.”
There were 29 personnel in the aircraft when it went missing shortly after take off from Chennai for Port Blair on July 22. However, search for the plane in the Bay of Bengal will continue, IAF officials said here on Thursday. As regards the reason for informing relatives, they said it was done to enable the next of kin to enable them to initiate process for insurance and other administrative formalities.
“The Court of Inquiry, upon very careful scrutiny of the circumstantial evidence available and in light of
extensive search and rescue operations carried out, has concluded that it is unlikely that the missing personnel on board the ill-fated aircraft would have survived the accident. It is with a feeling of
profound sadness that the Court of Inquiry has recommended that your son/daughter be presumed to have been fatally injured,” read the letter from IAF to the families of those in the aircraft.
The letter came annexed with a certificate of presumption of death. There was a woman officer among the missing personnel.
Officials said 17 ships of the Navy and Coast Guard including a submarine and 23 aircraft were engaged in the search mission since the plane which took off from Tambaram airbase near Chennai on July 22 and went missing soon after.
“No fewer than 201 search and rescue sorties, using all suitable aircraft at our disposal were undertaken. Approximately 2,17,800 square nautical miles (Sq Nm) have been covered multiple times by these aircraft,” the letter stated. “International emergency response teams and satellites from USA also did not help in getting any concrete information about the missing aircraft,” it added.
The plane is believed to have plunged into the sea from a height of 23,000 feet about 280 nautical miles off Chennai.