The Canyon brought back 70 to 80 percent of the wreckage recovered from the sea bed
Photo of the undercarriage of the crashed Dornier aircraft located in the Bay of Bengal. The aircraft went missing on June 8, 2015 after a routine maritime surveillance sortie along the Tamil Nadu coast. (Photo: AP)
Chennai: ‘Operation Talash’, the long drawn search operation for the missing Dornier Aircraft CG 791 and its three crew members of deputy commandant rank — Pilot Vidyasagar, co-pilot Subash Suresh, and navigator M.K. Soni — came to a grim end on Tuesday.
The unrelenting efforts, which included 693 hours of surface search and 196 hours of air effort of the Indian Coast Guard and the Indian Navy and other specialised agencies of the Government of India and M/S Reliance Industries resulted in the recovery of the human remains of the CG DOR 791 crew and the wreckage from the seabed. The mammoth 36-day operation ended on Monday evening. “The operation was called off yesterday and the Olympic Canyon returned to the Chennai harbor around 3 am and with it we have called of the search operations,” said Coast Guard IG, SP Sharma.
The Canyon brought back 70 to 80 percent of the wreckage recovered from the sea bed. It also recovered human remains (bones) and a wrist watch (Fastrack brand) from the area surrounding the wreckage.
The wreckage and the remains were then transferred to the Coast Guard station at Meenambakkam. “I have spoken to the Tamil Nadu Forensic Science Department and the remains will be sent for a DNA test to establish the identity of the crew members,” Sharma added.
The remains were found at three different places spread across a distance of 700 meters to 1.75 kms and at a depth of approximately 990 meters. It was 33 days after the ICG aircraft went missing that the human remains and wreckage of the aircraft were found at depths of 990 meters 17 nautical miles south east of the port town of Cuddalore.
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 were recovered by the Olympic Canyon vessel. The flight data recorder (FDR) and other materials that have been retrieved will be submitted to the board of inquiry. The families have been asked to come and identify the remains. “All this while there was a glimmer of hope but reality is now setting in and it is a very a sad situation now,” an officer said.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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