For India, the search for the missing AN-32 aircraft that went off the radar over the Bay of Bengal could be the most expensive. About 13 naval vessels, four Coast Guard ships and a submarine are in the search area. Indigenously build satellites CARTOSAT 2A and 2B, which can cover areas of 27x27 km and have a resolution of 0.8 mts have also been
pressed into the search. And yet, there seems to be no trace of the plane which went down enroute to Port Blair from Chennai. Planes that disappear at sea are not easy to find. Malaysian Airlines flight 370 which disappeared on 8 March 2014 is yet to be located and two-year search is likely to end with not result. In 2009 an Air France jet with 228 passengers and crew on board crashed into the Atlantic. The black boxes were recovered
two years later even though some wreckage and bodies
were discovered five days after the crash. The Bay of Bengal
is a large area and it is next to impossible to pin point the exact
point of a crash. But the government must press on and not
give up until all avenues. It is too early to give up.
