Massive search for missing IAF AN-32 aircraft continues without success for 3rd day

The massive search effort to locate the missing Indian Air Force (IAF) AN-32 transport aircraft which went missing while flying from Jorhat to a forward air strip Mehuka on June 3 with 13 personnel on board continued without success for the third day.

"Search and Rescue is still on with helicopters and C-130J (special missions aircraft) in the air," a spokesperson for the Eastern Air Command stated.

"Today, two Su-30s (frontline fighters), two C-130J (special missions aircraft), two Mi17s (medium lift helicopters), and two ALHs (helicopters), including one from Army, have been deployed to locate the aircraft," he added.

On June 4, the Navy pitched in with sorties of its P8I Poseidon long-range reconnaissance aircraft. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has also been enlisted in the effort, with its CARTOSAT and RISAT satellites used to capture images of the area in which the missing aircraft is believed to have gone down.

While search teams have indeed failed to detect any signal from the transmitter on the missing AN-32 aircraft, a fact check on the AN-32 upgrade programme reveals that the aircraft being flown by the IAF have all received a new avionics suite as part of a modernisation package. Earlier reports suggest that all but 5 aircraft from the AN-32 fleet have been upgraded. The upgrade on the last five was stalled because of the impasse between Ukraine and Russia.

The aircraft took off from the Jorhat airbase in Assam at 12:27 pm on June 3 and the last radio contact with it was at 1 pm.

Meanwhile, the Congress launched a broadside at the Government for "not upgrading" the IAF's AN-32 fleet.

"Sad to know that missing AN-32 had SOS Signal Unit that's OBSOLETE. Govt must tell- Why was upgradation of AN-32 not completed despite India & Ukraine agreement of 2009 (sic)?" party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala Tweeted.

He quoted a report on a website to claim that the emergency locator transmitter on the AN-32 fleet is obsolete.

While search teams have indeed failed to detect any signal from the transmitter on the missing AN-32 aircraft, a fact check on the AN-32 upgrade programme reveals that the aircraft being flown by the IAF have all received a new avionics suite as part of a modernisation package. Earlier reports suggest that all but 5 aircraft from the AN-32 fleet have been upgraded. The upgrade on the last five was stalled because of the impasse between Ukraine and Russia.

In a series of Tweets, Surjewala also referred to the 2016 case in which an AN-32 went missing while flying from Chennai to Port Blair over the Bay of Bengal. That aircraft was never found. He demanded to know why mitigating measures had not been taken.