Day 3: Search for ICG aircraft continues

The hopes of locating the missing Indian Coast Guard’s (ICG)Dornier aircraft with three crew, which went missing on Monday night, dented on Thursday with the test of oil, collected in Karaikal sea area, found to be negative.

The Coast Guard officials on Wednesday evening said that search team have found oil spill in the mid sea, which might belong to the missing aircraft.

“After testing, no trace of aviation fuel in water samples,” a senior official of Coast Guard said. He said the samples was tested by Indian Oil Corporation. Even as the tension grips over the fate of three crew members of the missing Dornier CG-791 of ICG, the search operations continued for the third day on Thursday.

A submarine, which was brought from Visakhapatnam, was also involved in search operations along with other rescue team. “No signs of the wreckage till now,” a rescue official said. Commander Coast Guard Region (East) S P Sharma said in addition, two other highly-specialised ships with Sound Navigation And Ranging (SONAR) technology too were scanning for possible wreckage under the water.

“These vessels are equipped with underwater search technology that would make it much easier to locate if there’s any debris below the sea,” he said.

He also said that Isro’s search and rescue satellite (SARSAT) is also looking for distress signals from emergency location transponders (ELT) of the missing aircraft.

Meanwhile, the family members of the three crew members —pilot Vidyasagar, co-pilot Subash Suresh and Navigator M K Soni — have already arrived here and waiting for positive news from the rescue team.