Coast Guard’s Dornier aircraft with 3 crew members missing off Chennai coast

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, June 09, 2015: A Dornier aircraft of the Indian Coast Guard with three personnel onboard went missing late Monday night shortly after it took off from Chennai.

 

The aircraft went off radar at around 9:23 pm in Tiruchirapalli last night after taking off from Chennai at 5:30 pm.

The Dornier aircraft, which was on a routine sortie, went missing about 95 miles south off Chennai.

Sitanshu Kar, spokesperson of Ministry of Defence, took to Twitter to confirm that the aircraft has been missing.

“One ICG Dornier a/c on a routine surveillance sortie over sea, off Chennai coast, is overdue since 2200 hr last night. SAR on.”, he tweeted.

He added that the missing Dornier aircraft was inducted in the Coast Guard in 2014 and “was being flown by highly experienced crew”. 

The Coast Guard and the Navy have launched a search and rescue operation to trace the missing aircraft.

Five Coast Guard and four Navy ships and one P8-I aircraft have been pressed into action to trace the missing plane.

In March this year, a Dornier surveillance aircraft of the Indian Navy with three personnel onboard had crashed into the Arabian sea, some 20 miles off the coast of Goa.

Lieutenant Kiran Shekhawat and Lieutenant Abhinav Nagori were present on the ill-fated aircraft and died in the line of duty.

 

Courtesy: Zeenews