A search of all islands in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago for the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH370 aircraft has so far, drawn a naught, officials of the Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC) confirmed yesterday evening.
Two Indian Navy ships, along with those from other nations, are continuing their search at the location pinpointed by the Malaysian authorities but nothing has been spotted on the water.
"There has been no oil slick, no flotsam or a sonar ping to indicate that the jetliner crashed anywhere close to where the search operations are being carried out.
Details available with us are vague. Our search teams require a particular starting point from where to begin looking. We have searched all the islands but there are no signs of the aircraft,"
The Times of India quoted ANC Chief of Staff Rear Admiral Sudhir Pillai, as saying.
Air traffic controllers at Kolkata have also ruled out the possibility of the missing aircraft flying through Indian airspace, one of the two possibilities that Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak suggested at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
The other alternative route that the flight - whose communication system was now believed to have been deliberately disabled - was to the Indian Ocean south of the Malacca Strait where the plane was last sighted on a Malaysian military radar, said the report.
According to Pillai, this would have taken the aircraft south of the Andamans.
Speaking to the English Daily in Kolkata, air traffic controllers' guild secretary Sugata Pramanik had said that while Flight MH370 could have avoided detection on the Secondary Surveillance Radar, the blip by the huge Boeing 777-200ER aircraft would surely have been spotted by the Indian Air Force (IAF) which used Primary Surveillance Radars to detect such intrusions.
"If an aircraft wants to avoid being seen, they can easily become invisible to civilian radar by switching off the transponder. But it cannot avoid defence systems. The IAF has radars in multiple installations across the country and it is inconceivable that none of them spotted the odd blip with no flight clearance," he said.
There are nine Air Defence Identification zones in the country that are manned round-the-clock to prevent an enemy aircraft from violating Indian airspace, said the report.
Kolkata Airport has an Automatic Dependence Surveillance Radar and Controller-Pilot Datalink Communication that enables it to not only trail planes when it is in the radar zone of 60 nautical miles or nearly 120km and beyond through very high frequency radio, but also through the data link when the plane goes out of voice communication range.
However, there are large areas in the Kolkata Flight Information Region, particularly over Bay of Bengal, that have no radar coverage at present.
A radar had been installed in Andaman and Nicobar Islands but was yet to be commissioned, said the daily.
Bernama
Sun Mar 16 2014
Dua warga AS antara yang ditemui maut di bilik hotel di Thailand
Jabatan Negara Amerika Syarikat ambil maklum mengenai laporan mengenai dua warganegaranya yang ditemui mati di sebuah hotel di Thailand.
EU tolak label UNRWA sebagai organisasi pengganas
Ketua Dasar Luar Kesatuan Eropah (EU), Josep Borrell mengulangi penolakan blok itu melabel Agensi Bantuan dan Kerja Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu untuk Pelarian Palestin (UNRWA) sebagai organisasi pengganas.
Mengimbau sedekad tragedi MH17
Pesawat MH17 Malaysia Airlines ditembak jatuh di timur Ukraine sejurus berlepas dari Lapangan Terbang Schiphol di Amsterdam, mengorbankan kesemua 283 penumpang dan 15 anak kapal di dalamnya.
Tragedi yang berlaku pada 17 Julai 2014 itu, kini memasuki tahun ke-10 kejadiannya.
Tragedi yang berlaku pada 17 Julai 2014 itu, kini memasuki tahun ke-10 kejadiannya.
Kerajaan teliti kaedah baharu lantikan tetap, pastikan kewangan negara lebih mampan
Kerajaan sedang meneliti kaedah baharu lantikan tetap bagi memastikan pengurusan kewangan negara yang lebih mampan.
PDRM gerak unit skuba forensik, K9 cari telefon, rantai Nur Farah Kartini hari ini
Proses mencari bahan bukti akan dimulakan sekitar jam 9 pagi di kawasan parit berhampiran ladang kelapa sawit berkenaan.
Bangkai pesawat MH17 tanpa sayap imbau kekejaman tragedi menyayat hati
Keadaan serpihan pesawat MH17 Malaysia Airlines (MAS) yang cuba dibina semula tanpa sayap, tayar, ekor dan tempat duduk penumpang cukup menggerunkan sekali gus mengingatkan pada kekejaman yang meragut
VOP akan diselesaikan dalam tempoh sebulan - Ahmad
Pelaksanaan Syarat Perubahan Harga (VOP) susulan penyasaran subsidi diesel dijangka diselesaikan dalam tempoh sebulan lagi, kata Timbalan Menteri Kerja Raya Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan.
Industri minyak sawit disaran guna semula sisa untuk bahan api penerbangan mampan - Liew
Industri minyak sawit perlu mengkaji penggunaan semula sisa sebagai stok suapan penting untuk bahan api penerbangan mampan (SAF), di luar penggunaan tradisional minyak sawit.
SDG: UTP lahir pelajar berkemahiran, tinggi tanggungjawab sosial
UTP berhasrat mendidik pelajar bukan sahaja untuk mahir dalam aspek teknikal tetapi juga untuk menjadi warganegara yang bertanggungjawab.
MAA semak semula unjuran jualan kenderaan 2024 kepada 765,000 unit
Persatuan Automotif Malaysia (MAA) telah menyemak semula unjuran jualan kenderaan bermotor baharu bagi 2024 kepada 765,000 unit daripada anggaran sebelumnya sebanyak 740,000 unit.
Puak Andaman: Manusia terakhir terputus hubungan dengan dunia luar
'Pelancongan asli' adalah satu fenomena di mana pelancong melawat orang asli dengan tujuan untuk melihat dan mempelajari tingkah laku komuniti ini bagi tujuan hiburan.