A routine supplies flight that went off the sky

The plane was on its regular thrice-a-week ‘courier’ flight to Andaman and Nicobar tri-service joint command.

The first tri-service joint command of India, the Andaman and Nicobar Command, has joined the search operation for the An-32 Aircraft which went missing with 29 people on board on its way here from Chennai on Friday morning.

“Aircraft Overdue procedures were initiated by the Command when the aircraft did not report to the ATC Port Blair. Three aircraft, 10 Naval ships and four Coast Guard ships at the ANC mounted search operations in the Bay of Bengal, in conjunction with the Eastern Naval Command based at Visakhapatnam,” Col. Yogesh Sharma, Public Relations officer of the Command, told presspersons.

“The aircraft had taken off from Tambaram at 8.30 a.m. and was scheduled to arrive at Port Blair around 11.40 a.m. Twenty-three passengers, including service personnel and defence civilians, were on the aircraft. In addition, the air crew consisting of six Indian Air Force personnel were on board.”

Depends on supplies

The Andaman and Nicobar Command depends largely on the supplies brought by this “courier” aircraft thrice a week.

The aircraft usually carries defence canteen items, other requirements, and personnel from all the services and the Coast Guard. There are wooden benches running along the sides on which those on board sit, while the materials are stored in the middle portion, tied down with nets. The aircraft transports the defence staff of Tri-Service Command.

India’s southernmost Air Force base at Car Nicobar gets supplies through this aircraft service.

The plane usually stops for an hour or an hour and a half at INS Utkrosh, Port Blair’s naval air base, before it takes off for the Car Nicobar base.

After the tsunami of 2004, the Car Nicobar base ceased functioning as a family base.

As per details available here, one youth from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Aircraft-Man Raghubir Verma from the Indian Air Force, is thought to be onboard the missing aircraft.

Pressure leak reported

Highly placed sources also confirmed that on July 14, the aircraft had reported pressure leak from the port door, and a week before that on July 7, it reported a “hydraulic leak from port wing root”.

Furthermore, five days prior to that, on July 2, the plane reported “sluggish throttle movement”.

Till last reports poured in, the Andaman and Nicobar Command said it received no lead in the search operation.

“No news till now,” said Col. Yogesh Sharma in the evening.

Earlier, the Andaman and Nicobar Police also helped the Andaman and Nicobar Commnad alert Navy jawans to report to duty immediately by making mike announcement across Port Blair through police control room vans.

As news spread of the disappearance of the aircraft and the search efforts got under way, a large number of people gathered on the sea shore to witness Navy and Coast Guard ships leaving the Port Blair port to join the search operation around 3 p.m.

'Every asset'

“We will put every available asset which is with us to look for the aircraft and locate passengers,” Indian Air Force public relations officer Anupam Banerjee said in New Delhi.