If the missing landing craft was not located yesterday, each passing day would have made it difficult to continue the search operation, according to the Indian naval officials who assisted Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) to rescue the six people on the landing craft, stranded at sea.
Speaking exclusively to PSM News, the Senior Pilot of Indian Navy, Commander Avtar Singh Goraya said they were grateful that they were able to locate the landing craft yesterday and if not, the missing landing craft would travel further from the Maldives making it harder for the search operation.
"Further the delay, the chances of survival reduces because they are already at sea for the past four or five days. So, has it got delayed further about over a day, the chanves of successfully finding it would have come down very much,” Avtar Singh said. He further added that if not for the lives involved they would have stood back on the operation due to the current weather of Maldives.
Regarding the weather, airborne technicians of Indian Navy, Arun said that strong wind and rain was a huge obstruction to the operation.
"The weather was pretty bad in the search area. Even at 2000ft there was a lot of rain. Wind was also not very conducive and the visibility was also quite less compared of what it is ideal for us to carry out a visual search,” he said.
The landing craft, with all six crew members on board were found in good health, 130 nautical miles northeast of the island of Isdhoomuli in Laamu atoll, according to MNDF. MNDF also noted that although the engine of the landing craft was in good condition, the chain of the ramp had been severed and that MNDF officials were trying to repair the damage on site. MNDF added that the location where the landing craft was found was not in range for Maldivian phone networks.
The landing craft, which was missing for seven days, was found by an Indian search aircraft. Immediately on sighting the landing craft, an Indian naval ship was deployed to the site.