Naval survey ship INS Sandhyak detects intermittent signals from missing Dornier aircraft

Chennai: Hopes for locating the Coast Guard Dornier aircraft that went missing on June 8 brightened on Saturday with a naval ship picking 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.

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.

In addition to this, Reliance India Limited has been approached to extend services of its Multi Support Vessel (MSV) with Remotely Operable Underwater Vehicle (ROV) for underwater operations.

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 S P Sharma, said "further tests are being done to get into the location of the missing aircraft more precisely".