Aviators aboard missing Dornier dead: Coast Guard

The Indian Coast Guard on Sunday announced that the human remains recovered by MV Olympic Canyon off the coast of Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu on July 13 belonged to the aviators in the Dornier aircraft which went missing on June 8. The human remains had been handed over to Tamil Nadu Forensic Sciences laboratory for DNA profiling to ascertain the identity of the persons.

A release issued by the Coast Guard on Sunday said that the DNA profiling was done with the blood samples collected from family members of the air crew and it was found from the tests that the human remains recovered by the search vessel belong to Deputy Commandants Subhash Suresh, Vidyasagar and MK Soni, the aviators aboard the Dornier at the time of the mishap.

The aircraft belonging to the Coast Guard was on a surveillance mission along the Palk Bay in the Bay of Bengal on June 8 when it lost contact with the air traffic control and went missing. It took more than a month for the Coast Guard and the Indian Navy to locate the missing aircraft and salvage the remains. The flight data recorder has been sent for analysis to find out the reasons for the disaster.The family members of the aviators have been informed about the findings of the Forensic Science laboratory.