Story highlights Military plane vanished without a trace on a routine flight to remote Indian islands

29 people were on board the aircraft

New Delhi, India (CNN) Twenty-seven days after an Indian military jet mysteriously vanished from radar on a routine flight over the Bay of Bengal, authorities are no wiser as to the aircraft's fate, Indian officials say.

The Indian Air Force Antonov AN-32 transport plane carrying 29 people took off from the southern Indian city of Chennai at 8:30 a.m. on July 22 for a three-hour flight to Port Blair, in India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

But 42 minutes after takeoff, the aircraft tilted to the left, descended swiftly from its cruising height of 23,000 feet and vanished from radar, Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar told the country's upper house of parliament in Delhi last month.

The missing plane took off from Chennai and was scheduled to land at Port Blair.

"There is no SOS... no transmission on any frequency," he said.

"It just disappeared."

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