Jharkhand News: NDRF team searches for training aircraft in Chandil dam after it went missing

KUMUD JENAMANI

Jamshedpur, Aug 21: A team of NDRF has started a search operation in the Chandil dam for a two-seater aircraft that has gone missing 15 minutes after it took off from Sonari aerodrome on Tuesday forenoon.

The search for the aircraft — Cessna 152 belonging to Alchemist Aviation — began in the sprawling Chandil dam on Wednesday morning after the police, forest department officials as well as the Alchemist Aviation carried out a prolonged search operation in the region throughout Tuesday.

Trainee pilot Jeet Shatru and instructor Subrato Deep who were aboard the aircraft are also traceless ever since the airplane’s connection got snapped off from the air traffic control at the Sonari aerodrome.

Alchemist Aviation’s director Ravi Pathak said after the information reached them about the incident, they had started searching for the missing aircraft since Tuesday late afternoon.

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“Though we had got an input that the aircraft had fallen into the Chandil dam, but on going over there we got no evidence of it. Then as the time passed by, we continued getting information about the aircraft from five other locations, including the Dalma hills. But the exercise proved futile despite spending the whole night in those locations. Ultimately as the last signal from the missing aircraft had come from the Chandil dam area, we decided to focus on the dam area only for the search, ” said Pathak while talking to The Jharkhand Story.

A pair of shoes was reported to have been found floating on the surface of the dam, but Pathak reported the information not to be true.

As the sprawling Chandil dam is 180 feet deep, it appears to be a Herculean task for the NDRF team to trace out the aircraft even if it has sunk in the water body.

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