India will resume the search for Malaysian airliner MH 370 missing for the last 12 days with 239 people on board from Thursday after a fresh request from Kuala lumpur to look for the aircraft in south Indian Ocean.
A P8-I long range maritime reconnaissance plane and two C-130-J transport planes of Navy and IAF respectively are expected to scour the 5,000 nautical miles south and south west of Jakarta, Indonesia, officials said here on Wednesday.
Malaysia had asked India to stop the search operations on Sunday last as it wanted to rethink and redirect efforts. Prime Minister Najib Rajak called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh the same day requesting technical help and radar data to corroborate the possible paths taken by flight MH370.
As regards the resumption of search operations by Navy and IAF, officials said one P-8I is on stand-by at Arakkonam in Tamil Nadu, while two C-130Js are ready at Port Blair.
P 8-I and C-130Js have long endurance with capability to scan the designated zone with radars, electro-optic and infra-red radars, they said adding the sorties will start from Thursday morning to cover area of 5,000 nautical miles from Jakarta towards Antarctica.
Earlier, India was part of global effort to trace the missing planes with 239 people on board and six warships and same number of aircraft were asked to cover an area of more than 2,50,000 sq.km in Bay of Bengal and south Andaman Sea.
Meanwhile, China has sought permission from New Delhi for sending its four warships into the Indian waters to look for the missing plane which had 150 Chinese nationals on board.
Beijing sent a formal request to India to allow their warships including a salvage vessel and two frigates to enter Indian waters in the Andaman Sea to locate the plane, sources said. The Government will take a decision on the request after consulting the defence forces, they added.