Chennai: Dornier aircraft missing with 3 crew members

Bengaluru, June 9: The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) Dornier that took off from Chennai at around 5.30 pm on Monday evening has gone missing since last night. The ICG officials have confirmed on Tuesday morning that one of its Dornier aircraft is missing.

Sources said that the aircraft (CG-791) was deployed for surveillance along the Tamil Nadu coast and Palk Bay from the Coast Guard Station Chennai last evening failed to return to the base.

"The last contact with the aircraft was about 9 pm and a radar positioned at Trichy tracked it till 9.23 pm in position 95 nautical miles south of Chennai (off Karikal)," an official said.

The aircraft is said to be from the batch of latest inducted into the ICG in 2014 and was being flown by an experienced crew members.

"Five ICG ships and 4 Indian Navy assets along with long-range maritime surveillance aircraft P8I are being pressed into the service to undertake search and rescue operations," an official said.

Giving initial details, Indian Navy Spokesperson Capt D K Sharma said that the Dornier was on a routine surveillance sorties over the sea when the incident occurred.

"A SAR (search and rescue) operation has been launched by ICG and Indian Navy ships. All authorities have been informed," Capt Sharma said.

Sources said that there were three crew members on board.

OneIndia News