Terming the missing of AN-32 transport aircraft incident as the worst in his stint as the IAF chief, Arup Raha said efforts were now on to engage some foreign companies specialising in scanning the sea bed to locate the ill-fated plane. The aircraft went missing in the Bay of Bengal soon after take-off from Chennai for Port Blair on July 22. Twenty nine service personnel including the flight crew were on board when the mishap took place.
Raha said 300 sorties with more than 1,000 hours of flying were undertaken to locate the AN-32. Ships and submarines were also pressed into service but no luck, he said adding some vessels specialising in going right up to the sea bed were also pressed into service. He said the sea bed is at a depth of 3.5 km thereby posing great challenge due to poor visibility.
He said the Government will soon take a decision on hiring foreign vessels to undertake this complex task. Meanwhile, all the IAF aircraft were now getting fitted with underwater locators to help in tracing a missing aircraft in sea. The ill-fate plane did not have such a locator, he said adding these devices are configured with flight data recorder.