What happened
On the morning of the incident, a twin-engine aircraft departed from Tambaram Air Force Base, located southwest of Chennai, at 08:30 local time. The flight was scheduled to be a three-hour journey terminating at Port Blair in the Andaman Islands.
While the aircraft was maintaining its assigned cruising altitude of 23,000 feet, approximately 280 km east of Chennai, it began a left-hand turn. Following this maneuver, the plane entered an uncontrolled descent and subsequently crashed into the sea. Search and rescue operations were launched immediately following the loss of contact; however, after efforts were conducted through early October, the mission was officially terminated on 3 October 2016. No wreckage or debris from the aircraft was recovered, and there were no survivors among the 29 occupants.
Findings
No definitive cause for the crash has been established, as the uncontrolled descent occurred without any trace of the aircraft or its passengers being located during the search operations.