After more than seven years since the disappearance of an Indian Air Force An-32 aircraft with 29 defence personnel, debris believed to be from the missing plane has been discovered on the sea bed, approximately 3.1 km off the coast of Chennai. Scientists from the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) in Chennai made the find using an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) equipped with various instruments, including a multi-beam SONAR and high-resolution cameras. The AUV detected strong SONAR reflections at a depth of 3,400 meters, leading the team to photograph the debris, which was subsequently identified by the Air Force as likely belonging to the An-32 aircraft that disappeared on July 22, 2016.
The An-32 had taken off from Chennai’s Tambaram Air Force Station and was headed to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands when it went missing over the Bay of Bengal. The recent discovery provides a crucial lead in solving the mystery surrounding the disappearance, shedding light on the aircraft’s last-known location and the probable crash site. The images were shared with the Air Force, which verified the debris’s association with the An-32. The findings were deemed significant, considering there were no recorded reports of other missing aircraft in the same area.
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