The Government on Friday said it has sought help from the US for detection of the Air Force’s AN-32 aircraft, which went missing on 22 July.
The government is seeking help from American defence forces to ascertain whether their satellites had picked up any signal before the disappearance of the plane, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said in the Rajya Sabha on Friday.
At the time of disappearance, the aircraft was on secondary/passive radar and there was no SOS or transmission of any frequency. It just disappeared so that is the worrying part. It is total blank. There was not even a single signal recorded.
The defence minister said the possibility of a sabotage in the mysterious disappearance of AN-32 aircraft was “comparatively very less”.
“All types of techniques are being used to locate the aircraft”, he said while replying to clarifications sought by members on his suo motu statement on the disappearance of the aircraft.
When asked about the age of the aircraft, the Defence Minister said it was “almost as good as new aircraft”. Elaborating he said, “I don’t know exact age but it is well within lifetime. It has undergone first overhauling. Lot of replacement has been done.... They are considered as one of the safest aircraft.”
He also added that “if aircraft is not fit for flying we don’t fly it. We have decided to check up whether we can improve the signalling system.”
On Thursday, Parrikar had said that “several inputs and leads” regarding floating objects have been picked up but there is no concrete evidence so far with respect to missing AN-32 aircraft of the IAF.
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