Missing Dornier finally located

The Coast Guard’s CG-791 Dornier aircraft, which went missing on June 8 in Chennai, has been located but could not be pulled out due adverse sea conditions.

Preliminary inquiry revealed that the aircraft met with an accident due to some “technical glitch”. It was traced under the <g data-gr-id="24">sea bed</g>, after 18 days of intensive search. Unfortunately, despite <g data-gr-id="26">its</g> being located, Coast Guard officials will take some more time to fish it out due to the prevailing bad weather conditions.

Speaking to Millennium Post, a senior Coast Guard officer said: “We have almost located the area and it will be pulled out soon.”

The revelation came after INS <g data-gr-id="25">Sandhyak</g>, undertaking <g data-gr-id="28">sub-surface</g> search, detected intermittent transmission of 37.5 kilohertz, likely from the Sonar Locator Beacon (SLB) of the missing aircraft. The transmission is around the position where the Air Traffic Control (ATC) radar had lost contact with the aircraft.

On June 10, the Coast Guard had ordered a ‘Board of Inquiry’, after the Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) fitted in the aircraft “mysteriously” stopped transmitting signals. 

The aircraft took off from Chennai on June 8 to monitor the Tamil Nadu coast and the Palk Bay. It was last tracked 16km off the coast of Chidambaram, 200km south of Chennai, by the airport radar in Tiruchirapalli. The aircraft was carrying three crew members – Pilot Deputy Commandant Vidya Sagar, co-pilot Deputy Commandant MK Soni and navigator Subash Suresh.