Dornier aircraft goes missing, search operation on

Aircraft Missing-India Indian Coast Guard, along with Navy, has undertaken a massive search and rescue operation after its Dornier surveillance aircraft with three personnel on board went missing off the coast of Chennai on June 8 night. 

Over Five Coast Guard ships, four Naval ships, as well as Indian Coast Guard and Indian Navy air craft and a long range maritime surveillance air craft P81 have been deployed to carry out a search and rescue operation in the area to find the aircraft. 

 The Dornier aircraft CG-791 was deployed for surveillance along the Tamil Nadu coast and Palk Bay from the Coast Guard Air station in Chennai. The last contact with the aircraft was established around 9 pm, and the Trichy radar tracked the aircraft till 10.23 pm in 16 nautical miles off the coast of Chidambaram, somewhere between Cuddalore and Karaikal.

The aircraft was trying to contact the air traffic control authorities right before it lost communication.

The missing Dornier aircraft was inducted in the Coast Guard in 2014 and “was being flown by highly experienced crew”. The crewmembers onboard have been identified as pilot Dy Comdt Vidyasagar, co-pilot Comdt MK Soni and navigator Dy Comdt Subhash Suresh.

In March 2015, another Dornier surveillance aircraft of the Indian Navy had crashed into the Arabian Sea, about 20 miles off the coast of Goa, killing two aircrew members including a woman observer Lieutenant Kiran Shekhawat.

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