The Indian military is facing huge unpredictability and challenges in carrying out the search and rescue (SAR) operation in the hunt for the An-32 aircraft that disappeared on Friday morning over waters between southern India and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Air Force Chief, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, reached Chennai on Saturday to lead the search for the Russian transport aircraft with 29 people on board. The search has now entered the second day.
Mr Parrikar was briefed about the “challenges of undertaking SAR under monsoon conditions with heavy rain, cloud cover, rough sea condition and most importantly depths of over 3,500 metres in the area,” a government statement said.
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The Minister and senior military officers undertook a sortie from Naval Air Station Rajali at Arakkonam onboard an Indian Naval P-8I Maritime Reconnaissance aircraft for reviewing the Search and Rescue (SAR).
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Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar along with Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha undertook an aerial survey on board the Navy’s P-8I aircraft on Saturday, after he was briefed on the search operations for the missing An32 aircraft at naval air station INS Rajali at Arakkonam. Earlier, the Minister visited Tambaram airbase, from where the missing An-32 took off on Friday.
Interacting with the media in the sidelines of a function here, Rear Admiral Alok Bhatnagar, Flag Officer of Tamil Nadu & Puducherry Naval Area said, “We are on full force to locate the missing aircraft. We have got ships, aircraft and submarine deployed there.”
Replying to a query, he said, “We are searching…We have not located anything as yet but the search is on.” When persisted whether there was any headway in the search, he said, “No clue as yet, but we are looking.. Ships deployed looking for any signs of the aircraft.”
Coast Guard Regional Commander (East) Inspector General Rajan Bargotra said Coast Guard sailor R.M. Krishnan, who was on board the missing aircraft An-32, had just visited his family in Chennai before taking off to Port Blair.
SAR challenges
Late on Friday night sensors onboard the Navy P-8I long range patrol aircraft and Coast Guard Dornier aircraft picked up some objects in the sea which looked like remains of the missing An-32 aircraft. The Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) at Chennai immediately diverted Merchant Vessel Harshavardhan, proceeding to Chennai from Port Blair, which was closest to the position of the suspected debris. However, the signal turned out to be futile, and the search began again.
“The object looked like some part of an aircraft. But it could not be confirmed from the aircraft due to low light. We immediately diverted ships for confirmation,” an officer involved in the late evening futile search said.
For Search and Rescue (SAR) teams, locating a small plane in the wide blue expanse of the ocean is an extremely difficult task. It is further complicated by conditions like temperature and salinity of the waters that confuse sensors looking for possible clues.
The weather conditions too hamper search efforts, especially if the sea is choppy. According to officials, the weather has been rough all Saturday as the Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard continued the search.
In the aftermath of the incident, MRCC which is co-ordinating the SAR operations immediately alerted all concerned agencies and activated International Safety Net message for informing the vessels transiting through the area to look out for any signs of the missing aircraft. At least five merchant vessels were also advised to look out.
To narrow down the search area, the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services was requested to provide computer-aided probable search area and the National Remote Sensing Centre in Hyderabad has been requested for high-resolution satellite images.