The AUV spotted the debris of the plane during its trial in the Bay of Bengal
A ROUTINE testing of a recently-acquired automatic underwater vehicle (AUV) by the Chennai-based National Institute of Ocean Technology stumbled upon a large debris that eventually solved the seven-year-old mystery of a missing transport plane of the Indian Air Force.
The AN-32 transport plane, with 29 people on board, was flying from Chennai to Port Blair on July 22, 2016 when it had gone missing.
The AUV, used for deep sea exploration up to a depth of 6,000 metres, was imported from Norway by the NIOT about six months ago for its own use, and was being lowered in the Bay of Bengal last week for testing and training purposes, when it spotted a few metal parts.
“The first thing it saw was a chakra, a three-coloured emblem. When the people at NIOT saw it they first thought it might be the remains of a ship-wreck. Some nearby areas were also searched and a few metal pieces were observed. We sent the images to the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force. The IAF identified it as their plane,” M Ravichandran, Secretary of the Ministry of Earth Sciences under which NIOT functions, told The Indian Express.
The wreakage was found in sea around 300 km off the Chennai coast.
“It was a purely accidental discovery last week. It had not gone there to search. The AUV had gone to the sea earlier as well as part of its tests. This time, when it was about 3,400 metres below the sea surface, it noticed the wreckage. The AUV takes photos and videos while exploring the area under sea. Those images have now been confirmed to be that of the crashed AN-32,” Ravichandran said.
The Defence Ministry said it had confirmed that the images are indeed that of the crashed aircraft.
“The search images were scrutinised and found to be conforming with an AN-32 aircraft. This discovery at the probable crash site, with no other recorded history of any other missing aircraft report in the same area, points to the debris as possibly belonging to the crashed IAF AN-32,” it said in the statement.
(With inputs from agencies)