A transport plane of the Indian Air Force with 29 people on board went missing today while flying from Chennai to Port Blair. The AN-32 aircraft took off at 0830 hours from Tambaram in Chennai and the last contact with it was made 16 minutes later, defence sources said. It was to have landed around 11.20 am. A massive search operation has been launched by the IAF, Navy and the Coast Guard, sources said.The Navy has launched surveillance aircraft to look for the missing plane in the Bay of Bengal. A Dornier aircraft has also been sent and four ships, Karmukh, Gharial, Jyoti and Kuthar have been diverted to the region at full speed. Some reports claim that bad weather could have played a role in the aircraft going off the radar.