Sagar Nidhi may not be of help in tracing AN-32

Chennai

The multi-agency search and rescue teams have not yet made any headway despite spending over a week doing an area search over 60,000 square nautical miles and a surface search up to 14,400 square nautical miles. The highly limited underwater search using the Indian Navy’s submarines is also highly unlikely to get any desired results as it could only cover a limited area around the probable crash site. The steep depth in this area of the ocean, more than 3,500 feet, poses major hurdles in underwater search.

The search and operation teams have been trying to highlight the arrival of Sagar Nidhi, a research vessel of the National Institute of Ocean Technology, which has been summoned to join the search team from Mauritius, where it has been engaged in a research project. However, experts allege that Sagar Nidhi can only help in understanding the ocean surface currents and their behaviour at the suspected site and to tell the rescue team that how far the debris could have travelled and in which direction, if at all the crash had taken place in the suspected area.

“As far as finding the underwater debris is concerned, Sagar Nidhi is not going to do any better than the submarines. All submarines are fitted with multi-beam echo sounders as part of their navigation system. Sagar Nidhi has powerful echo sounders that can get echoes from up to a depth of 6,000 feet,” an Indian Navy personnel told DTNext.

However, he was quick to add that this facility could bring results only if the crash site is properly marked. “It is not possible to carry out mapping of the sea surface to find minute debris over such a vast area. So, we do not hope to get any major breakthrough with the arrival of Sagar Nidhi,” the official added.

They say even an analysis based on the ocean current would not be useful as more than seven days have passed and the ship would be reaching the crash site even later. “Ocean surface currents change the course based on the direction of the wind and due to various other factors. We are waiting to see how much Sagar Nidhi could help us in understanding the debris drifting,” the official added.