The morning of March 12 this year, came with clouding due to low pressure, persisting over Andaman and Nicobar Region. After a fabulous weekend of Holi celebration I joined 745 Squadron (CG), the premier Coast Guard Air Squadron of A&N Region equipped with one Dornier and one Chetak. CG 766, the Dornier aircraft is considered as the vanguard of the squadron as it was actively involved in the apprehension of 26 boats/trawlers with 173 poachers in last three months. In addition to this, one of the most satisfying roles in which a Dornier can be employed is search and rescue. Most of the Dornier crew savour these as cherished memories. One such mission was a great memoir for me.

On March 12, a distinct sound of telephone stroke off the evening silence at Squadron Commander, V K Awasthi’s residence. "Hello" came the reply. It was a call from Duty Staff Officer of the Coast Guard Regional Headquarters (A&B) informing the Squadron Commander about the missing dongie (an open country boat without canopy) with Commander Bhat (Retd) and two foreign national tourist plus three boat crew who had ventured into sea to carry out diving off Sir Huge Ross Island, approximately 20 NM east of Port Blair in the morning of March 11, with an intention of returning before dusk the same day. However, after 24 hours the information was delivered to Coast Guard, the sole agency of search and rescue at Andamans. On getting the information the Squadron Commander with only two pilots, Deputy Commandants H S Walia and S Chopra swung into action and hence began the Mission Talash.

A meticulous plan for SAR taking into account the probable drift direction was made and a helicopter was launched on the very first light next day to cover the nearby islands followed by Dornier with much more endurance and potential to cover the area at a great extent. Due to low pressure persisting over Andamans regions we were flying in the "weather factory of clouds". However, with the exceptional skill and experience of the aircrew to retrieve the situation to the best advantage we continued with the search but the intermittent heavy precipitation and poor visibility yielded no gains except investigation of one ship, one fishing trawler and 12 boats which were carrying out normal fishing activities.

The weather continued to be the same but little less furious on March 14. The anxiety about the survivor safety kept pumping adrenaline into our blood stream resulting in launching of another sortie. The search was planned taking into consideration the probable south/south-easterly drift. However, even after more than six hours of flying and covering a vast expanse of area nothing but five merchant ships and eight boats were investigated and advised for keeping a sharp look-out for the missing dongie.

The time was running out as it was told that the dongie was not prepared for more than a day as there was no ration and fresh water and the dongie was scheduled to return after few hours of diving. The eristical thoughts about their whereabouts could not hamper SAR efforts and all the faculties kept telling that the survivors were there somewhere and had got to find them.

On March 15, the crew could find a little clear weather and the sortie was launched amidst broken clouds of small magnitude. However, inspite of flying for more than eight hours it was to the bad luck of the survivors that they were not found in that area. The authorities were well aware of the hardship the survivors must be experiencing. The situation was reviewed and it was contemplated to shift the search on to the easterly direction.

On 16th morning, the Dornier with the same crew was once again launched to concentrate on easterly and southeasterly direction. Soon after take off, around 10 NM east of Port Blair the aircraft sighted debris of wooden boat with a number of floating objects within 5 NM radius. The crew immediately vectored Coast Guard ship Vivek, which was 8 NM from the debris. However, on investigation it was revealed that the debris did not match with the dongie. Thereafter, the aircraft detached for further search but inspite of two consecutive sorties nothing much except two Indonesian boats, which were later confiscated by another CG ship, could be traced. By this time, the same crew had already clocked 35 hrs (approx) of flying within a span of four days and had covered the vast expanse of area. The crew cohesion was quite apparent and they were determined for success.

On the morning of 17th, the weather was quite clear and one could see the self-luminous heavenly body with its golden rays peering out of horizon. The sortie was once again launched for its assiduous efforts towards SAR. The morale of the crew, who were painstakingly flying for the fifth day, was quite high and they were determined to win the hide and seek game with the mighty ocean.

The aircraft started search along the IBL and in the first three hours located one Naval ship, three Myanmar trawlers, two Indonesian boats and a merchant ship MV Santosh. After about four hours of flying, Commandant V K Awasthi the navigator reported about a small blip on the PPI and asked to turn the aircraft to the designated direction. At that time the aircraft was flying at a height of 2000 ft (AMSL) and after a few minutes one could see a small dot on the horizon. The crew with their eyes squinting was trying to identify the contact and while approaching little close one could see a strobe flash followed by another similar flash as if somebody was trying to draw attention. By this time the aircraft was about 4 NM from the contact. Once the aircraft flew overhead the contact, the crew identified it to be a dongie quite identical in colour and shape with the missing one. I immediately disengaged the autopilot and manoeuvered the aircraft for a low pass at a height of about 50 ft for a positive identification. To our surprise it was revealed that the dongie was the same, which we were looking for almost a week. On a second low pass we could recognise the survivors as they were waiving desperately with their belongings. The synergy of our efforts culminated in picking up of survivors.

It was the happiest moment of our life as we found all six of them in a reasonably healthy condition. Tears rolled down proving the inexplicable human bonding; the inherent affection one has for another. Sighting of survivors after 7 days of adrift 120 NM far east of Port Blair deep into ocean was a most delightful news which was aired by the crew for immediate assistance. Knowing the presence of MV Santosh in the vicinity we requested the captain of the vessel to head towards the survivors for immediate assistance. The captain of the vessel readily accepted our request and diverted the ship from the main course to zoom towards the survivors. Subsequently, on contacting Coast Guard authorities it was revealed that a Coast Guard ship with a helicopter onboard was also positioned about 70 NM from the reported position of the survivors. We thereafter detached the merchant ship which by that time was about 30 NM from the position and vectored CG ship to R/V survivors followed by shepherding of helicopter. It resulted in successful recovery of all the survivors.

On interviewing the survivors after arrival at Port Blair it was revealed that the reflecting surface was nothing but a camera flash. At this juncture I would like to share one more fact of life. Mr Hugues Vitry, the Mauritius national among the six survivors who otherwise claims himself to be an atheist, was praying for the first time in his life for the safety of his friends when he was interrupted by his colleague at 1340 hrs and at 1342 hrs the survivors heard a faint sound up in the sky and with their experience they identified it to be propeller sound of an aircraft. At 1344 hrs they
could clearly sea a dornier approaching towards them. The timely help of the Almighty was available when it was asked for. "was it a coincidence"? I leave it to you to decide.