Mystery Unraveled: Debris from Missing Air Force Plane Found After 8 Years”

New Delhi (IANS): In a significant breakthrough, the long-standing mystery surrounding the disappearance of the Indian Air Force’s An-32 transport aircraft in 2016 appears to have been solved. Debris from the crashed plane has been discovered off the Chennai coast by an Autonomous Utility Vehicle (AUV) developed by the National Institute of Ocean Technology.
The aircraft, with flight number K-2743, took off from the Tambaran air base in Chennai on July 22, 2016, carrying 29 personnel, including eight civilians, on an operational mission. Sixteen minutes into the flight, the pilot communicated that “Everything is normal.” However, the aircraft rapidly lost altitude, disappearing from radar at 9:12 am, 280 km off the Chennai coast.
After eight years of uncertainty, the AUV, equipped with multi-beam SONAR, synthetic aperture SONAR, and high-resolution photography, conducted a deep-sea exploration at a depth of 3,400 meters. The search revealed debris from a crashed aircraft on the sea bed, approximately 310 km off the Chennai coast. The National Institute of Ocean Technology, operating under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, analyzed the photographs and confirmed that the debris aligns with the missing An-32 aircraft.
While the findings bring closure to the families of the 29 personnel onboard, the reason behind the crash remains undisclosed. The discovery sheds light on the tragic incident that occurred almost a decade ago, providing answers to a mystery that has lingered for years.