India expands search for missing Malaysian jet to Bay of Bengal

New Delhi: The search for the missing Malaysian airliner under India's Operation Searchlight has been expended to the Bay of Bengal area 900 km west of Port Blair by the Navy after a request from that country, the Defence Ministry said today."The Malaysian authorities have requested for a search in the Bay of Bengal, expanse of which is around 9,000 sq km. This area is approximately 900 km due West of Port Blair. Search in this area would be undertaken by the resources of Eastern Naval Command," a Defence Ministry release said here.[caption id="attachment_1435053" align="alignleft" width="380"] Representational image. Reuters[/caption]The Joint Operations Room at Port Blair has been activated to monitor the progress of the search operations which enetered the seventh day, it said.India has deployed five warships, including INS Kumbhir, INS Kesari and INS Saryu along with Coast Guard ships ICGS Sagar and ICGS Kanaklata Baruah along with the P-8I and C-130J surveillance aircraft in a bid to trace the missing Malaysian plane.Coast Guard's ICGS Sagar will join the search in next three-four days after sailing from Brunei.The Dornier surveillance aircraft are undertaking sorties continuously and two of them are at anytime airborne under the operations, they said.PTI