The search and rescue mission to locate the missing AN-32 aircraft is being extended to under the surface of the sea, as the operation failed to yield any result even on the fourth day on Monday. The aircraft went missing with 29 personnel on board on Friday last while flying from Chennai to Port Blair.
Rajan Bargotra, Coast Guard Commander (East) told reporters at Chennai on Monday that three days of search in Bay of Bengal for the missing aircraft which was on its way to Port Blair from Chennai, has not yielded any results.
‘As of now, no survivors or debris have been found. The search operation is carried out by 13 ships of the Indian Navy and two ships of the Coast Guard besides other assets from Andaman and Nicobar islands,” said Bargotra.
The area of search operation has been extended. “We are looking on all directions,” said the CG commander. He said though the search team had come across certain materials in the sea, they were not from the missing aircraft.
Bargotra said once the underwater search commences, services of institutions like the National Institute of Ocean Technology at Chennai would be incorporated. It was the research vessel Sagar Nidhi owned by NIOT which played the crucial role in locating the debris of the Dornier aircraft which went missing in June 2015. Sources in the Ministry of Earth Sciences told The Pioneer that it would take another three days for Sagar Nidhi to reach the spot as the sea was rough.
A software Search and Rescue Aided Tool (SARAT) developed by the scientists of the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Service (INCOIS) has been pressed into the search and rescue mission since Saturday. The SARAT developed by a team of INCOIS scientists led by TM Balakrishnan Nair had won the National Geo Science Award 2014 for the best innovative invention.
Speaking to The Pioneer over phone from Hyderabad, Nair said the INCOIS team have marked an area of 15,000 sq km in the Bay of Bengal where there is 60 per cent probability of finding the debris/remains of the aircraft. “The depth of the sea in this area could be 3,500 meters and it may take time to reach the depth,” he said.