Underwater search for missing Coast Guard Dornier aircraft to begin today

New Delhi: The underwater search for the missing Coast Guard Dornier aircraft will commence on Sunday after a Navy ship INS Sandhyak picked up signals besides spotting oil spills that are being tested to determine whether they are from the ill-fated plane.

"INS Sandhyak has detected intermittent Tx, likely to be from the SLB (Sonar Locating Beacon) of the missing aircraft," Defence Ministry spokesperson Sitanshu Kar tweeted.

"Multi-coloured oil seen in concentric circles indicating oozing of oil in area under focus," he said

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Meanwhile, in a statement here, the Coast Guard said, "INS Sandhyak undertaking sub-surface search, detected intermittent transmission of 37.5 Khz, likely to be from the Sonar Locator Beacon (SLB) of the missing aircraft."

The transmission is around the position (coastal Tamil Nadu somewhere around Karaikkal-Cuddalore) where the Air Traffic Control (ATC) radar had lost contact of the aircraft.

"Efforts to search and locate the missing ICG Aircraft by the ICG and IN ships in area of probability continues for the past 110 hrs," the statement said.

A multi-coloured sheen of oil in concentric circles was sighted which indicated oozing of oil, it said adding the sample of oil has been sent to the laboratory for analysis.

On Thursday, a similar sample tested by IOC turned out to be only sea water with no traces of oil in it.

Submarine INS Sindhudhvaj is likely to arrive in the area late in the evening for further augmentation of sub-surface search, the Coast Guard said.

Also, National Institute of Ocean Technology has diverted its research vessel 'Sagar Nidhi', which is likely to arrive in the area for augmenting underwater search by tomorrow.

A total of 10 CG and IN ships with two aircraft are undertaking the search for the missing aircraft till now, the Coast Guard statement said.

Earlier, Coast Guard (East) Commander, Inspector General SP Sharma, said "further tests are being done to get into the location of the missing aircraft more precisely".

Later Sharma said that "further confirmatory (tests) towards these signals is being established".

"The submarine is likely to join the search operations by (late evening) today," he said.

"We are hoping that the confirmation of the most probable position of the missing Dornier is established as early as possible for us to take further action," he added.

(With additional information from PTI)