Dornier has a reliable safety record

Chennai: The massive search operation for the missing Dornier aircraft of Coast Guard has failed to locate the aircraft so far. The aircraft with three personnel on board on a routine surveillance mission along Tamil Nadu coast and Palk Bay went missing on Monday night. The search is possibly not being carried out in the right place, a retired senior Coast Guard official said. “It is possible the delay (in locating the aircraft) is due to not looking in the right location,” Commodore (Retd) R.S. Vasan, a former eastern region commander of the Coast Guard told DC on Wednesday.

Barring the contact made with Trichy ATC, which determined the aircraft’s last known position at about 16 nautical miles off Chidambaram, and reports of local fishermen in Cuddalore district reporting ‘burning debris falling into sea’, there is not much information made available to the search party, the retired naval officer said. He has been closely following the search operation.
The flight is presumed to have crashed into the sea, said Commodore (Retd) Vasan. “Unlike the Arabian Sea, there is greater depth in the Bay of Bengal and hence the move to bring in Sonar fitted ships to possibly locate the debris was essential,” he said.

However, caution must be exercised for there exists a possibility of the debris having drifted away due to strong underwater currents, he said. In March this year, two Indian navy personnel also flying a dornier were killed when their aircraft crashed off the coast of Goa. “Dornier aircraft has been used by the Navy and Coast Guard for more than 30 years now and has a reliable safety record. In my service, I have only known two other crash incidents and one involved a pilot error,” the retired naval officer said.