Indian Navy picks up beacon signals of missing Dornier aircraft (Update)

A naval survey ship has reportedly picked up signals from the missing Indian Coast Guard's Dornier aircraft.

The Dornier with three crew members went missing on on Monday night along the Tamil Nadu coast.

The Ministry of Defence on Saturday said in a statement that intense and sustained efforts are being made to search for the the missing aircraft. The search has been on for the last 110 hours.

Ministry of Defence spokesperson Sitanshu Kar, on microblogging website Twitter, posted a few photographs of a multi-coloured sheen of oil in concentric circles, which indicated oozing of oil. The sample of oil has been sent to the laboratory for analysis.

"INS Sandhayak has picked up signals from the missing aircraft. The signals were picked up from the aircraft which has Sonar Locating Beacon and it can transmit signals up to 30 days," Inspector General S P Sharma, Commander, Coast Guard (East), Chennai, was quoted, as saying.

"Further tests are being done to get a more precise location of the missing aircraft," Sharma added, but did not elaborate.

Twelve Coast Guard and Naval ships along with patrol boats of the Coastal Security group are involved in the search.

The National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) has diverted its research vessel 'Sagar Nidhi' and is likely to arrive in the area for augmenting underwater search by tomorrow.

The missing Dornier had on board Deputy Commandant Vidyasagar piloting the aircraft, his co-pilot and Deputy Commandant Subash Suresh and navigator/observer M.K. Soni-all in their 30s.

The missing aircraft was deployed for surveillance along the Tamil Nadu coast and over Palk Bay.