An Indian Navy surveillance aircraft crashed south-west off Goa coast with two officers, including a woman onboard, missing, while one has been rescued.
The Dornier maritime surveillance aircraft, which was on a routine training sortie, lost contact with the Naval Air Station in Goa on Tuesday night at 2208 hours.
“The aircraft is feared to have ditched soon thereafter. The crew onboard the aircraft comprised three officers [two pilots and one woman observer],” the Navy said in a statement.
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One survivor, Commander Nikhil Kuldip Joshi, who was flying the aircraft, was rescued about an hour later by a fishing vessel.
The crew used a toll-free helpline to contact the Navy’s Maritime Operation Centre, which then sent an aircraft to collect the injured officer and move him to hospital at Karwar.
He is reported to be stable though severely injured.
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Meanwhile, a Board of Inquiry has been ordered to establish the cause of the accident.
Sea of Risk: Recent accidents in the Indian Navy
- INS Betwa (F39) - January, 2014 (Naval base)
- > INS Sindhuratna - February, 2014 (Mumbai coast)
- > INS Kolkata - March, 2014 (Mazagon Dock)
- > INS Ganga - May, 2014 (Naval Dockyard)
- INS Airavat (L24) - February 03, 2014
- > INS Kora - October, 2014 (Visakhapatnam coast)
- > Torpedo Vessel TRV 72 - March, 2014 (South off Visakhapatnam)