CHENNAI: Although the IAF has declared all 29 persons who were onboard the AN32 aircraft that went missing on July 22, as presumed dead, efforts for underwater search continued with the dummy test of Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle (ROV) of National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), 30 nautical miles from Chennai,on Thursday.
The ROV, which had taken a long break of more than two years, underwent dummy test to check its efficiency before being launched in underwater search operations to locate the missing IAF plane.
Once the efficacy is proved, then NIOT’s Sagarnidhi will return to Chennai Port after which a total of 30 crew members, including 25 from NIOT, would sail to the chosen sites.
It is learnt that apart from NIOT scientists, the ship will have crew from Coastguard, IAF and Geological Survey of India. The vessel is likely to depart on September 18.
The ROV was assembled and fitted in Sagarnidhi. “There were a few issues over assembling the ROV as the spares were not available. Some parts in the ROV were upgraded as spares of older parts were not available. The spares had to be procured from Canada,” sources said.
Usually, the ROV is meant for geological exploration where the position or location is not required. It will be searching the location zeroed in by Geological Survey vessel Samudra Ratnakar,and Sagarnidhi.
“The vessels have found some material. It will be ascertained whether it is wreckage of the missing IAF aircract only after we get the pictures through ROV,” the sources said.