New Delhi: A Coast Guard Dornier aircraft with three crew members, two pilots and an observer, onboard has been missing since Monday night. The aircraft took off from the Chennai airport at 5:30 PM for a routine sortie and it lost contact with the base after 9 PM.
Crew of missing Dornier are Deputy Commandment Vidyasagar (pilot), Commandment MK Soni (co-pilot) and Deputy Commandment Subhash Suresh (navigator).
The aircraft CG-791 was inducted in 2014 and was last tracked at 10 PM on Monday at Trichy airport radar. It disappeared north-east off Karaikal coast.
The aircraft was supposed to return to the Chennai base at 10 PM.
The aircraft was "deployed along the Tamil Nadu coast and Palk Bay from the Coast Guard Air Station Chennai on Monday evening and it failed to return to the base," the Coast Guard said in a statement.
Defence Ministry spokesperson Sitanshu kar said, "The missing Dornier aircraft was the latest induction in Indian Coast Guard, in 2014, and was being flown by highly experienced crew."
One ICG Dornier a/c on a routine surveillance sortie over sea, off Chennai coast, is overdue since 2200 hr last night. SAR on.— Sitanshu Kar (@SpokespersonMoD) June 9, 2015
The Navy and Coast Guard has launched a massive search operation. Five Coast Guard ships, four Naval ships, along with Indian Coast Guard and Indian Navy aircraft and a long range maritime surveillance aircraft P81 are undertaking search and rescue operation in the area, it said.
"On receipt of the information, massive search and rescue efforts have been launched by utilising all available surface and air craft of the Indian Coast Guard and Indian Navy," the statement said.
"The aircraft is the latest induction in the Coast Guard inventory and was being flown by highly experienced crew," it said.
#ICGDornier 5 ICG & 4 IN ships, aircraft including LRMS a/c P8I are conducting SAR 4 the missing Dornier (File pic) pic.twitter.com/NpHilImFpK— Sitanshu Kar (@SpokespersonMoD) June 9, 2015
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