Chennai: The underwater expertise of the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), based in Chennai, is set to assist the massive search operation for a missing Coast Guard aircraft, which entered the fourth day today. “We have requested the services of NIOT, as they have advanced technology in such operations. They have agreed to help us out,” a Coast Guard official said on Thursday.
The official also confirmed that water samples taken from the stretch off Cuddalore, where an oil spill was reported to have occurred, did not yield any results. “We found no trace of the aircraft oil in that water sample after an analysis was completed today,” he said. Besides, the 12 Coast Guard and naval ships currently on the lookout for the aircraft, a naval submarine INS Sindhudhwaj and survey ship INS Sandhayak, equipped with sonar, are expected to join the search operation on Friday.
Mr C. Sylendra Babu, additional director general of police, Coastal Security Group, Tamil Nadu police, said there had been no sign of the aircraft’s debris so far. “We currently have 10 boats thoroughly searching the area, which we are now concentrating on the stretch between Puducherry and Cuddalore. On Thursday morning, we searched the mangrove forest in Pichavaram but no remains were found,” he said. Aerial search by Coastal Security Group using their paramotors was undertaken along the marshy and mangrove area.
