AN-32: Playing with lives

It comes as very sad news that there are no survivors among the 13 people on board the IAF AN-32 which crashed in Arunachal Pradesh. An extensive aerial search led to finding of wreckage and it took a hazardous airdrop of mountaineers into hilly terrain to check for survivors. The crash occurred on June 3 after the transport plane took off from Jorhat airbase as the AN-32 apparently couldn’t make the climb over a hill due to cloud cover in possibly bad weather. The question arises about the plane’s airworthiness: to fly in a mountainous area with known hazards for a plane with a service ceiling of 31,000 feet and a cruising speed of around 470 kmph, which means it has less leeway trying to outrun bad weather or climb over it.

The Antonov-32 turboprop is a workhorse that flies endless sorties for IAF. The previous known case of a suspected crash occurred over the Bay of Bengal as an aircraft from a Chennai base was flying towards the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Nearly three years have passed since India’s most extensive search for an aircraft in the sea was called off in September 2016. Maintenance issues were suspected to be behind the disappearance of that AN-32. Most of these tactical aircraft have been in service since 1984, and all these planes were meant to be upgraded by 2016, as the military awaits moving up to an India-Russian multi-transport IL-214. Needless to say, our military faces even more dangers due to outdated equipment and doubtful maintenance than the occasional pilot error that causes aircrashes. It’s hard not to conclude that we are failing to do enough to ensure the safety of our armed forces personnel.