New Delhi: An Indian Navy reconnaissance aircraft, Dornier, with three personnel on board, including a woman officer, crashed into sea south-west off Goa on Tuesday night.
A massive rescue operation scale has been launched in an area of around 20,000 sq km to locate the pilot and a lady lieutenant who was performing a role of observer in the aircraft when it crashed at around 2200 hrs.
Lead pilot of the aircraft was rescued after he was spotted by a fisherman.
According to sources, the fisherman found Commander Nihkal Joshi floating by his life jacket in a state of unconsciousness an hour after the aircraft went down.
On getting a call from the fisherman, the Navy rescued the pilot and admitted him to hospital ship Patanjali at Karwar.
Navy chief Admiral RK Dhowan air dashed to Goa to personally oversee the search operations and met the family members of the missing crew. As many as 12 ships, including a submarine and four types of aircraft- Kamov, Dornier, Chetak and ALH- have been pressed into service to locate the missing plane.
Incidentally, this is the first mishap in the Navy in which a lady officer went missing. Her husband too is also serving in the Navy.
The aircraft took off from INS Hansa, the Indian Navy airstation in Goa, at around 1830 hrs last evening and went missing at 2208 hrs, Navy spokesperson Captain DK Sharma said.
Initially, the navy had pressed six ships for search and rescue operations but was forced to scale up the effort with every passing hour due to wind and tide conditions at sea.
‘The area of search is spreading in thousands of kilometers by every passing minute,’ a navy officer explained.
He said one more life jacket was found during the search. (PTI)
