PANAJI, March 25: An Indian Navy’s Dornier surveillance aircraft based at INS Hansa, Goa crashed into the sea during a routine training sortie around 30 miles south west in Arabian sea off the coast of Karwar, Karnataka.
One pilot Nikil Joshi was rescued out of the three aircrew on board while two members are missing.
Rescue operations are on to find the missing personnel.
Navy sources said that the incident took place on Tuesday late night when the aircraft was on a routine night flying operation. Sources said that the Navy air station at Goa lost radar contact with the aircraft at around 10.30 pm.
Six naval vessels including Coast Guard vessel Amal, and a naval ship from Goa have sailed to join the operations. While some debris has been found, the main wreckage has yet to be located and is presumed to have sunk to the sea bed, sources said.
A few naval vessels from Mumbai have also sailed out and are expected to reach the crash zone later on Wednesday. Sources said that the operation to retrieve the aircraft could take a few days.
Source said that Joshi was rescued by fishermen from Karwar and he was later admitted to a naval hospital at Karwar for treatment.
A series of accidents have plagued the Indian Navy in recent years.
A gas leak on a Navy destroyer being built at a Mumbai dockyard killed a commander in March last year, and a fire on a Navy submarine killed two officers in February.
In 2013, another of the Navy’s Russian-made diesel-powered submarines caught fire after an explosion and sank at its home port in Mumbai, killing all 18 sailors on board.
