Three days later, naval ship picks up signal from missing Coast Guard Dornier aircraft

Chennai: A sonar-equipped Naval survey ship has picked up signals from the ill-fated Coast Guard Dornier aircraft that went missing with three crew members on board on June 8 along the Tamil Nadu coast. [caption id=“attachment_2294346” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “]  AFP image.[/caption] “INS Sandhayak has picked up signals from the missing aircraft. The signals were picked up from the aircraft which has Sonar Locating Beacon and it can transmit signals upto 30 days,” Inspector General S P Sharma, Commander, Coast Guard (East), Chennai, told PTI. In a statement, the Defence Ministry on Saturday said, “INS Sandhyak undertaking sub-surface search, detected intermittent transmission of 37.5 Khz, likely to be from the Sonar Locator Beacon (SLB) of the missing aircraft.” NDTV report quoted Defence Ministry sources and said that “a multi coloured sheen of oil in concentric circles was sighted which indicated oozing of oil,” adding that the “sample of oil has been sent to the laboratory for analysis.

#ICGDornier 1st Pic. Multi-coloured oil seen in concentric circles indicating oozing of oil in area under focus. pic.twitter.com/Cr8OQNTw6D

— Ministry of Defence, Government of India (@SpokespersonMoD) June 13, 2015

#ICGDornier INS Sandhyak has detected intermittent Tx, likely to be from the SLB of the missing aircraft. Details at https://t.co/65VIiKwsjk

— Ministry of Defence, Government of India (@SpokespersonMoD) June 13, 2015

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‘Sandhayak’ began operations in the Karaikkal-Cuddalore coastline on the intervening night of June 11-12. The ship’s sonar sent signals deep into the ocean and has picked up signals from the aircraft. “Further tests are being done to get a more precise location of the missing aircraft,” Sharma said, but did not elaborate. The Dornier aircraft went missing on June 8 after a routine maritime surveillance sortie along the Tamil Nadu coast. It lost contact with air traffic control after 9.23 PM on that day, following which a massive search operation was launched with the involvement of multiple state and central agencies. With inputs from PTI