Panaji: The body of Lt Kiran Shekhawat was on Friday recovered from the fuselage of the ill-fated Dornier Aircraft of the Navy which had crashed during a flying sortie off the Goa coast even as another officer continues to be missing.
The body of Lt Kiran Shekhawat has been recovered from the fuselage of the aircraft. They body is being taken to Goa,” Navy Spokesperson Captain DK Shamra said in New Delhi. Shekhawat, an Observer, had taken part in the first all-women marching contingent of the Navy during the Republic Day parade.
The Dornier, Do-228, belonging to the Indian Navy Aviation Squadron 310, took off from INS Hansa in Goa at 6.30 pm on Tuesday evening on a training mission. It lost contact at 10.08 pm, 25 nautical miles off Goa coast. Commander Joshi, the in-charge of the aircraft, has 4,000 hours of flying experience.
This is the first ever accident involving a Dornier wherein the “aircraft has been lost”. Acquired in late 1990s from the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), 36 Dornier aircraft are operated by the Navy. The Navy has constituted a fact-finding committee to ascertain the cause of the incident.
INS Makar, a naval hydrographic vessel, had detected a large metallic object using its side-scan sonar at a depth of 50-60 metres. Later on inspection, it was confirmed that the object was the fuselage of the Dornier aircraft. The maritime surveillance aircraft had crashed south-west off Goa coast on Tuesday night at 2208 hours.
Commander Nikhil Kuldip Joshi, who was flying the aircraft and has 4,000 flying hours to his credit, was rescued about an hour after the crash by a fishing vessel. Presently, there are 12 ships, including two of Indian Coast Guard, and four aircraft involved in the search and rescue operations. A Board of Inquiry has been ordered to establish the cause of the accident.
Bureau Report
Leave a Reply