The Indian Space Research Organisation and a Navy submarine joined efforts to trace Dornier CG-791 that went missing with three officers on board on Monday night, even as the Coast Guard located some oil spill in the area of lookout off the Karaikal coast.
While ISRO’s search and rescue satellite (SARSAT) would look for distress signals from emergency location transponders (ELT) of the missing aircraft, the submarine - INS Sindhudhvaj, which is on its way from Visakhapatnam, would look for such signals under sea with its sonar.
The satellite positioned on a geostationary platform would pick up signals from beacons of the missing aircraft and it would help find its location, ISRO chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar said.
“We have found some oil spill in the area during surveillance. We have sent the sample to labs to ascertain whether it is fuel from an aircraft,” IG S.P. Sharma, Regional Commander (East) said, adding a Board of Inquiry has been ordered into the incident.
Only when the voice data recorder of the aircraft is found can the reasons behind the incident be brought to light, he said.
Meanwhile, Vice Admiral H.C.S. Bisht, the DirectorGeneral of the Coast Guard visited Chennai on Wednesday to review the rescue operations. He met the missing officers’ family members, who are said to be “composed but emotionally disturbed.”
The search has been extended to 70 nautical miles into the sea, extending from Mahabalipuram to Karaikal along the TN coast, while advisories have been given to IB , district administration, fishermen and merchant ships to report citing of any objects.
A total of 15 vessels, including INS Sandhayak, INS Khukri, INS Chetlat, INS Car Nicobar, INS Coradiv, ICGS Rajtarang, ICGS Abheek, ICGS Ameya and ICGS Sarang, besides a Dornier and long-range maritime surveillance aircraft P8I were coordinating the search and rescue operations off Karaikal coast.
The Coastal Security Group (CSG) continued searches along the coast in coordination with the Navy and the Coast Guard. “We have alerted officials in 13 coastal districts and teams have been undertaking the operation 12 nautical miles off the coastline”, the ADGP of Coastal Security Group C. Sylendra Babu said.
Oil spill in the area
of lookout off the Karaikal coast detected
