Coast Guard expects info on missing aircraft soon

The Indian Coast Guard is expecting some concrete information on its missing Dornier aircraft with a submarine joining the search operations, an officer said on Sunday. The Coast Guard also refuted television reports of the aircraft being located under water.

"The submarine (INS Sindhudhavaj) has started its search in the area where the aircraft is suspected to have fallen," a Coast Guard officer told IANS.

"Today, late evening we should get some information on the missing aircraft. The television reports of locating the aircraft underwater are totally wrong," he added.

According to him, the aircraft manufacturer is also being requested to assist in the deciphering the reason for <g data-gr-id="37">the its</g> disappearance.

This is the second Dornier aircraft that went down with three crew in the recent times.

The latest incident comes within months of a Dornier-228 of the Indian Navy with three crew going down in the Arabian Sea off the Goa coast, killing two. The March crash was the first involving a Dornier, inducted by the navy in the mid-90s.

According to the Coast Guard official, there is no similarity of pattern between the two aircrafts -the one that went down last December and the missing aircraft.

"We are doing various studies on the probable cause of aircraft missing," the official said.

He said the Dornier aircraft has an emergency exit.

"Unless we get the flight data recorder or see the missing aircraft we cannot tell anything," he said. 

He also said the tests of multi-coloured oil sheen found on the sea turned negative. On Saturday survey ship INS <g data-gr-id="43">Sandhayak</g>, undertaking a sub-surface search, detected intermittent transmission of 37.5 <g data-gr-id="44">khz</g>, likely to be from the sonar locator beacon of the missing aircraft, the Coast Guard said in a statement issued here.

"The transmission is from around the position where the air traffic control radar lost contact of the aircraft on Monday night," the statement added.

Ever since the Coast Guard aircraft with three crew members went off the radar around 9.23 p.m. on Monday, an intensive search is on for the last six days to locate it.