Exclusive: Missing Coast Guard Dornier went into steep dive
Sandeep Unnithan New Delhi, June 12, 2015 | UPDATED 23:21 IST
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Coast Guard Dornier.THE RELATEDS
A Coast Guard Dornier went into a steep dive before it went missing off the coast of Chennai on the night of June 8.
Coast Guard officials told India Today citing a secondary radar of Chennai air traffic control which reported that the aircraft dived from 9000 feet to 5000 feet in just 16 seconds before it went missing at 9.40 pm.
At 9.23 pm the pilot reported to the tower that he had finished his task and would land in Chennai at approximately 10.15 pm. That was the last transmission.
The Indian Navy today joined a three-day search for the missing aircraft on the Cuddalore-Karaikal coast. One P8-I Poseidon long range maritime patrol aircraft, a survey vessel INS Sandhayak and a Kilo class submarine INS Sindhudhvaj were pushed into the search effort today.
The submarine will use its sonar to listen in to the extremely low frequency emitted by one of three beacons on board the aircraft. The navy uses the submarine sonar to locate small objects on the seabed, including torpedoes. The search has been complicated by the tremendous depths in the Bay of Bengal. Ships and aircraft are searching an area where the seabed is 800 metres below the surface.
The missing aircraft was just a year old and had flown 100 hours after a one-year inspection by manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL). It was one of a batch of 12 new Dorniers ordered by the coast guard after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
The crash, only the second of a Coast Guard Dornier since they were inducted in 1986, has baffled the force. The coast guard fleet of 30 Dorniers has clocked 2 lakh hours of accident free flying. The Coast Guard's most experienced Dornier pilots brainstormed at the force's headquarters yesterday to discuss what could have gone wrong. All the possible causes-engine failure or an engine falling off-were ruled out. It was piloted by two experienced Dornier pilots.
The pilot Deputy Commandant Vidyasagar had logged 2400 hours while co-pilot Deputy Commandant Subhash Suresh had 2900 flying hours on the Dornier. The observer Deputy Commandant MK Soni had 1600 hours of flying time.
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