On Friday, the Government said in Lok Sabha that there are unlikely to be any survivors on board the AN-32 aircraft The aircraft went missing over the Bay of Bengal on 22nd July 2016.
This is the first categorical statement by the government on the fate of the 29 people on board the Indian Air Force AN – 32 Aircraft.
Subhash Ramrao Bhamre who is the Minister of State for Defence said during Question Hour that it is no chance that there are any survivors after so many days of the Aircraft missing incident.
The Minister said that a variety of aircraft, including helicopters of the coast guard and air force, have been pressed into service to search and locate the plane. Fishermen community and Merchant vessels have also been requested to look out for debris of AN-32 aircraft.
At least 30 floating objects were located but no strong evidence has yet been found.
Bhambre said that the complete wreckage of Malaysian Airlines flight MH 370 had disappeared on 8th March, 2014. The Malaysian airline has not been found so far.
He said that The remains and wreckage of the crew of a Coast Guard Dornier aircraft was also found after several days.
Bhambre said that on the fateful day, the radars tracking the aircraft had found a thunder cloud bad patch but the plane was equipped with the device to avoid such a disturbance.
Aircraft AN-32 had taken off on a routine courier flight from Tambaram to Port Blair on 22nd July 2016 at 8:30 am with six crew and 23 personnel, but never arrived at the destination. Aircraft AN-32 was last seen on the radars at 9 am.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said that in the last 24 months, no life has been lost in an air crash involving air force planes, barring the case of the aircraft AN-32 incident.
Parrikar in his written reply said that the air force had lost 7 aircraft in crashes in 2013-14 and 10 aircraft in 2014-15. In 2015-16, the number was 6 and up to 9th August, 4 planes have crashed.
He said that Modernisation, Upgradation, and replacement of military aircraft depend upon the national security/threat perception, strategic objectives and operational requirements of the defence forces and are reviewed by the government from time to time. This is a continuous process.
TMC Dinesh Trivedi who is former Railway Minister wanted to ask a supplementary on the issue, but was apparently not allowed by the Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. He complained that You never allow me to ask…what is the point sitting in the House.
