Indian naval officers work in the control room of the P8I Long Range Maritime Patrol aircraft on March 15 as it searches for a missing Malaysian jet in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea
New Delhi:
Two Indian surveillance jets searched for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on Sunday as part of the multi-nation effort to locate the airliner which went missing on March 8 with 239 on board.
Sources have told NDTV that the Indian Air Force's C-130J Super Hercules Special Operations aircraft flew out approximately 1700 km from Malaysia's Subang Airport and searched the area for three hours.
The Indian Navy's P8i Long Range Maritime Recon (LRMR) plane flew out approximately 2500 km south of Jakarta, sources said.
The Indian aircraft continued searching for the aircraft despite bad weather. China was the only other country which deployed its plane to search for the missing airliner. US, Japan and South Korean planes and ships were on standby.
India has so far deployed six warships and five maritime surveillance aircraft in Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea - the area where China wanted to join in. New Delhi declined the offer saying it is India's responsibility.
The plane's last confirmed position, picked up by Malaysian military radar, was at 2:15 am Malaysia time (1815 GMT March 7) about 200 nautical miles northwest of Penang island, roughly an hour after it diverted from its scheduled route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Officials close to the investigation said available information showed the plane may have passed close to Port Blair, the capital of India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 550 miles (885 km) further northwest along an established commercial flying route.
The Defence Ministry has not commented on whether the aircraft had flown over Port Blair.
India has said it is possible that the military radars were switched off as it operates on an "as required" basis in that area.
A reluctance to share sensitive military radar data in a region where countries are wary of each other has hampered investigators' attempts to solve the baffling disappearance, officials have said.
Sources have told NDTV that the Indian Air Force's C-130J Super Hercules Special Operations aircraft flew out approximately 1700 km from Malaysia's Subang Airport and searched the area for three hours.
The Indian Navy's P8i Long Range Maritime Recon (LRMR) plane flew out approximately 2500 km south of Jakarta, sources said.
The Indian aircraft continued searching for the aircraft despite bad weather. China was the only other country which deployed its plane to search for the missing airliner. US, Japan and South Korean planes and ships were on standby.
India has so far deployed six warships and five maritime surveillance aircraft in Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea - the area where China wanted to join in. New Delhi declined the offer saying it is India's responsibility.
The plane's last confirmed position, picked up by Malaysian military radar, was at 2:15 am Malaysia time (1815 GMT March 7) about 200 nautical miles northwest of Penang island, roughly an hour after it diverted from its scheduled route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Officials close to the investigation said available information showed the plane may have passed close to Port Blair, the capital of India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 550 miles (885 km) further northwest along an established commercial flying route.
The Defence Ministry has not commented on whether the aircraft had flown over Port Blair.
India has said it is possible that the military radars were switched off as it operates on an "as required" basis in that area.
A reluctance to share sensitive military radar data in a region where countries are wary of each other has hampered investigators' attempts to solve the baffling disappearance, officials have said.
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