The Hunt for CG791

The unprecedented search and salvage of Indian Coast Guard Dornier 228 CG791

The Indian Coast Guard ( ICG) is rapidly expanding post the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, in order to combat piracy, terror and also to provide search and rescue (SAR) for aircraft and ships in distress at sea. Today, the ICG operates about 130 vessels, 18 hovercraft and 61 aircraft (including 39 Dornier 228s for maritime patrol, SAR and much else). In addition, the service has over 80 ships under construction in Indian shipyards.

I am not a pilot, but as a former Director General ICG, have flown many hours over the sea in ICG Dornier aircraft and can vouch for the type’s reliability and safety record (200,000 accident free flying hours in the ICG until 8 June 2015), as well as professional capability of the ICG aviators who unflinchingly venture out 24/ 7 to patrol the seas in the Dornier 228, which has an endurance of over 6 hours.

This article recounts the incredible and tragic saga of the SAR and salvage operation mounted for Coast Guard Dornier CG791, which was the latest addition to the Coast Guard in February 2014 ( from HAL Kanpur) and also became the first ICG Dornier aircraft to be lost at sea, along with its highly trained three-man aircrew, on 8 June 2015.

On the fateful day, CG791 took off at 1805h from Chennai for a patrol in the Palk Bay area. It was due to return Chennai at 2200h (landing with spare fuel for another 2 hours 20 minutes of flying). At 2100h, the aircraft reported to the Chennai Flight Information Centre (FIC), that it was departing from its patrol area and returning to Chennai. When the aircraft did not return by 2230h, the Chennai FIC declared the aircraft “overdue” and the ICG operations room at Chennai swung into action, though some still hoped that the aircraft may have had an emergency and landed elsewhere on land.

Urgent inquiries revealed that Trichy Air Traffic Control ( ATC) had been tracking CG791 on radar till 9: 23 pm when the radar echo suddenly disappeared, about 90 nautical miles south of Chennai, indicating that the aircraft may have rapidly lost altitude and crashed into the sea. The satellite service provider ( INMARSAT) also confirmed that CG791’ s satellite communications system, which interacts electronically with the communications satellite, even when not in use, had abruptly ‘powered off’ at 2124h. Assuming the worst, ICG Chennai operations room established a search area of 45 nm around the last known position (‘datum’) of CG791, and commenced a massive SAR operation code named Operation Talash.

A Coast Guard Dornier from Chennai was launched for SAR and four ships from the ICG and Indian Navy also set sail. By sunrise on 9 June 2015, the Navy launched a Boeing P-8I maritime patrol aircraft, the most sophisticated patrol asset available, and additional ICG and IN ships joined the SAR operations. Tamil Nadu state police boats and local fishermen were also pressed into service. The search area was increased to 70 nm around the last known position of the missing aircraft. Assistance was sought from the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Sciences (INCOIS) in Hyderabad, who ran a computer simulation