Indian Air Force plane carrying 29 personnel goes missing

NEW DELHI - An Indian Air Force plane carrying 29 people went missing on Friday during a journey to Port Blair, capital of the Andaman and Nicobar islands, an air force spokesman told AFP.

“A search operation is on. The plane was airborne at 8:30 am and was supposed to land at Port Blair at 11:30,” Wing Commander Anupam Banerjee said.

The craft took off at 8.30am from Tambaram in Chennai and the last contact with it was made 16 minutes later.

A P-8I surveillance aircraft, one Dornier and four ships were deployed in the search operation and more assets were being dispatched, officials said.

Defence sources said the search operation was being carried out 200 nautical miles from east of Chennai.

Reportedly, the aircraft was carrying service personnel to the strategic islands near the Malacca Straits, where India has a military base.

Many took to Twitter as the news started making rounds on social media.

https://twitter.com/sachin_rt/status/756451025913942016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Hope it's safe... Why can't Indian airforce scramble jets to check https://t.co/7uFn4jbz3i

— Ravindra Vasisht (@rvasisht) July 22, 2016

Lets not say Hope for the best,Think Positive and say Indian Air Force AN-32 with 29 people on board is safe.

— Maya Ganguly (@fieryindian) July 22, 2016

A demonstration of Search & Rescue ops launched by Indian Navy for Indian Air Force AN-32 plane which went missing pic.twitter.com/ICCvve6wBY

— ANI (@ANI_news) July 22, 2016

Indian Air Force AN 32 plane with 29 on board missing, massive search ops on https://t.co/K3sQI2tEF4 pic.twitter.com/RhcgydfzQc

— NDTV (@ndtv) July 22, 2016

LIVE updates : IAF AN-32 aircraft with 29 on board goes missing.https://t.co/oIQNDXDvuV pic.twitter.com/DidpqSfLUT

— The Quint (@TheQuint) July 22, 2016

This is a developing story and will be updated accordingly.