The search for the missing Indian Coast Guard Dornier aircraft which included 693 hours of terrestrial search, 196 hours of air search and was conducted by over 12 agencies is being considered as the longest and largest search in India's maritime history.
On June 8, 2015, the Dornier with three crew members left Chennai International Airport for a routine night surveillance but did not return. Subsequently, Operation Talash was launched to find the missing dornier.
The operation started with four ships and a long range maritime surveillance aircraft of the Navy. A dozen warships of the Navy and the Coast Guard soon joined the combing operation. The Coast Guard also sought help of Reliance Industries for the Multi Support Vessel Olympic Canyon.
"This is an unprecedented search operation with such massive force levels and for so many days," IG Coast Guard SP Sharma said.
It took 33 days before the wreckage of the Dornier was recovered from the seabed at a depth of 990 metres. There were many challenges that the Coast Guard faced.
Some of these were that the seabed had a steep gradient which made it difficult to carry out the search operation. The seabed in the area was at a depth of 700-900 metres. Most companies had informed the coastguard that the maximum depth they could go to was 610 metres.
The cause of the accident still remains a mystery. The flight data recorder which has recorded at least 30 minutes of the cockpit transmission will certainly help the board of inquiry to piece together what led to this fatal accident ascertaining whether it was a human or a technical error.
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