2 missing after Indian navy plane crashes

NEW DELHI— An Indian navy surveillance aircraft has crashed into the sea off the country’s western coast and two of the three people on board are missing.

Navy spokesman Rahul Sinha said Wednesday that one officer on board has been rescued. A search operation is underway for one missing pilot and another officer on board.

Sinha said the accident occurred Tuesday night during a routine training flight from the western base of Goa. The cause of the accident was not immediately known.

A series of accidents have plagued the Indian navy in recent years. A gas leak on an Indian navy destroyer being built at a Mumbai dockyard killed a navy commander in March last year, and a fire on a navy submarine killed two officers in February.

In 2013, another of the navy’s Russian-made diesel-powered submarines caught fire after an explosion and sank at its home port in Mumbai, killing all 18 sailors on board.

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