It took 693 hours of surface and 196 hours of air efforts to find the remains of Coast Guard Dornier 791 that had gone missing on June 8 off Chennai. Here is a detailed account of the search operation co-ordinated by multiple agencies.
“The unrelenting efforts which included 693 hours of surface and 196 hours of air effort of the Indian Coast Guard, Indian Navy and other specialised agencies of the Government of India and Reliance Industries Limited has paid off and has resulted in the recovery of the human remains of the CG DOR 791 crew and the wreckage from the seabed at a depth of 990 meters,” read a statement released by the Indian Coast Guard.
The wreckage was recovered on the 33th day of the search, that is on the morning of July 10. This aircraft was inducted into the force in 2014 and was on a sortie by highly experienced crew comprising of pilot Deputy Commandant Vidyasagar, co-pilot Deputy Commandant M.K. Soni and observer Deputy Commandant Subash Suresh.
On June 8, the flight was airborne from Chennai International Airport for routine night surveillance and was scheduled to return to base at 10pm. After the aircraft went missing, the Regional Headquarters (East), launched a massive Search And Rescue operation code named Operation TALASH to locate the aircraft.
A Black Box detector from NIOT was fitted onboard Coast Guard Ship Vigraha. Indian Naval Survey Ship, INS Sandhayak arrived thereafter.
“The major challenge in the conduct of the underwater search was that the seabed in the search area had a steep gradient. Though the Indian Navy ship reported receipt of six pings (sub-surface transmission) on 37.5 KHz frequency, however as no subsequent transmission were received, firm position could not be localised,” said Coast Guard spokesperson.
A day later, submarine Sindhudhwaj commenced search, which submarine reported sporadic sub-surface reception but as the signal was weak, the position could not be established once again.
NIOT Research Vessel (RV) Sagar Nidhi was also engaged for the seabed profiling but there was no luck to locate the aircraft or its debris.
Finally, assistance was sought from Reliance India Limited for services of Multi Support Vessel (MSV) Olympic Canyon equipped with Remotely Operated Underwater Vessel (ROV) High Precision Acoustic Positioning Equipment (HIPAP) for undertaking sub-surface search, extended the support ‘on GRATIS basis’. But once again nothing was discovered.
INS Sindhudwaj was once again redeployed that “picked up a barrage of transmissions at a depth of 990 metres” from the Sonar Locator Beacon of the missing aircraft.
Once again MSV of Reliance was redeployed on July 10 at the identified position. The break through came on this day when MSV Olympic Canyon was carrying out the search.
“33 days after the aircraft went missing, the human remains and wreckage of the aircraft was found at depths of 990 meters in position 17 Nautical miles South East of Cuddolore. The debris which included the flight data recorder, two engines, propellers, tail and tail cone, air frame parts, maevest, the single line replacement unit, parts of the fuselage, part of the landing gear and the cockpit voice recorder, part of the flying overall, watch and boot worn by the crew have been recovered by the Reliance Vessel Olympic canyon vessel,” mentioned the note.
14/07/15 Ateeq Shaikh/Daily News & Analysis
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“The unrelenting efforts which included 693 hours of surface and 196 hours of air effort of the Indian Coast Guard, Indian Navy and other specialised agencies of the Government of India and Reliance Industries Limited has paid off and has resulted in the recovery of the human remains of the CG DOR 791 crew and the wreckage from the seabed at a depth of 990 meters,” read a statement released by the Indian Coast Guard.
The wreckage was recovered on the 33th day of the search, that is on the morning of July 10. This aircraft was inducted into the force in 2014 and was on a sortie by highly experienced crew comprising of pilot Deputy Commandant Vidyasagar, co-pilot Deputy Commandant M.K. Soni and observer Deputy Commandant Subash Suresh.
On June 8, the flight was airborne from Chennai International Airport for routine night surveillance and was scheduled to return to base at 10pm. After the aircraft went missing, the Regional Headquarters (East), launched a massive Search And Rescue operation code named Operation TALASH to locate the aircraft.
A Black Box detector from NIOT was fitted onboard Coast Guard Ship Vigraha. Indian Naval Survey Ship, INS Sandhayak arrived thereafter.
“The major challenge in the conduct of the underwater search was that the seabed in the search area had a steep gradient. Though the Indian Navy ship reported receipt of six pings (sub-surface transmission) on 37.5 KHz frequency, however as no subsequent transmission were received, firm position could not be localised,” said Coast Guard spokesperson.
A day later, submarine Sindhudhwaj commenced search, which submarine reported sporadic sub-surface reception but as the signal was weak, the position could not be established once again.
NIOT Research Vessel (RV) Sagar Nidhi was also engaged for the seabed profiling but there was no luck to locate the aircraft or its debris.
Finally, assistance was sought from Reliance India Limited for services of Multi Support Vessel (MSV) Olympic Canyon equipped with Remotely Operated Underwater Vessel (ROV) High Precision Acoustic Positioning Equipment (HIPAP) for undertaking sub-surface search, extended the support ‘on GRATIS basis’. But once again nothing was discovered.
INS Sindhudwaj was once again redeployed that “picked up a barrage of transmissions at a depth of 990 metres” from the Sonar Locator Beacon of the missing aircraft.
Once again MSV of Reliance was redeployed on July 10 at the identified position. The break through came on this day when MSV Olympic Canyon was carrying out the search.
“33 days after the aircraft went missing, the human remains and wreckage of the aircraft was found at depths of 990 meters in position 17 Nautical miles South East of Cuddolore. The debris which included the flight data recorder, two engines, propellers, tail and tail cone, air frame parts, maevest, the single line replacement unit, parts of the fuselage, part of the landing gear and the cockpit voice recorder, part of the flying overall, watch and boot worn by the crew have been recovered by the Reliance Vessel Olympic canyon vessel,” mentioned the note.
14/07/15 Ateeq Shaikh/Daily News & Analysis
