Chennai/ New Delhi: The debris of the ill-fated Indian Coast Guard (ICG) Dornier aircraft, which crashed into the sea more than a month ago, was finally found on Friday in the Bay of Bengal, 20 nautical miles south-east of Cuddalore.
The fate of the three crew members aboard, however, was not known, and there is no clarity now on how long the search for them will continue.
Coast Guard IG S P Sharma said ships involved in search operations found the black box about 16 nautical miles off the Pichavaram coast near the Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu, where it was last seen.
Explaining the process involved in locating the aircraft, inducted in the service in 2014, Sharma said Indian naval Submarine Sindhudhvaj, on redeployment for locating the missing aircraft, picked up a barrage of transmissions at a depth of 996 m on July 6.
“This was a vital source for deployment of the Reliance vessel MV Olympic Canyon to localise the search,” he said, adding: “Consequently, the uninterrupted search, which included 693 hours of surface effort and 196 hours of air effort, yielded positive results.”
Sharma said the Multi-functional Support Vessel (MSV) of Reliance India Limited with integrated Remotely-Operated Vehicle (ROV) was able to locate and recover the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and a Line Replacement Unit (LRU) from a depth of 950 m in a unique and first-ever salvage at such depths. “Some parts of the aircraft were also found,” he said.
10/07/15 Deccan Herald
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The fate of the three crew members aboard, however, was not known, and there is no clarity now on how long the search for them will continue.
Coast Guard IG S P Sharma said ships involved in search operations found the black box about 16 nautical miles off the Pichavaram coast near the Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu, where it was last seen.
Explaining the process involved in locating the aircraft, inducted in the service in 2014, Sharma said Indian naval Submarine Sindhudhvaj, on redeployment for locating the missing aircraft, picked up a barrage of transmissions at a depth of 996 m on July 6.
“This was a vital source for deployment of the Reliance vessel MV Olympic Canyon to localise the search,” he said, adding: “Consequently, the uninterrupted search, which included 693 hours of surface effort and 196 hours of air effort, yielded positive results.”
Sharma said the Multi-functional Support Vessel (MSV) of Reliance India Limited with integrated Remotely-Operated Vehicle (ROV) was able to locate and recover the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and a Line Replacement Unit (LRU) from a depth of 950 m in a unique and first-ever salvage at such depths. “Some parts of the aircraft were also found,” he said.
10/07/15 Deccan Herald
