NEW DELHI: Body of the Indian Navy pilot who was missing since his MiG-29K crashed in the Arabian Sea has been found.
The body of Commander Nishant Singh was found on the seabed 70 metres below water, 30 miles off the Goa coast after an extensive search.
The Navy in a statement said that all sections of the aircraft wreckage including ejection seats have been accounted for using side-scan sonar and HD cameras. The FDR/CVR along with other important material have also been recovered for investigation.
The aircraft had crashed on November 26. The Russian-origin jet had taken off from aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, and went down at around 5pm.
Singh's co-pilot had managed to eject the aircraft safely and was rescued. However an extensive search operation could not trace Singh, although some wreckage of the aircraft was found a few days later.
It was the fourth MiG-29K crash since January 2018. India acquired 45 of these supersonic fighters for $2 billion from Russia to operate from INS Vikramaditya, which was inducted in November 2013 under a separate $2.33 billion deal.
The MiG-29K is an all-weather carrier-based multirole fighter aircraft developed by Russian aerospace company Mikoyan (MiG).
INS Vikramaditya was part of the second phase of the Malabar exercise involving navies of India, the US, Australia and Japan. The MiG-29K fleet on board the aircraft carrier was also involved in the mega naval drill that took place from November 17 to 20.
(With agency inputs)
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