Indian navy plane crash: Two crew members missing after aircraft plummets into sea off Goa coast

The Dornier surveillance aircraft was on a routine flight when it came down on Tuesday

The Dornier surveillance aircraft (like the model pictured) was on a routine flight when it came down off Goa (Indian Navy/http://indiannavy.nic.in/)

A search and rescue operation is under way to find two crew members missing after an Indian navy plane crashed into the sea off Goa.

The Dornier surveillance aircraft was said to be on a routine flight when it came down about 25 nautical miles south-west of the West Indian state at around 11pm on Tuesday.

One crew member was rescued, but two are still missing, said navy spokesman Rahul Sinha.

The officer, named as Commander Joshi by the Times of India, was rescued by fishermen and admitted to hospital.

Mr Sinha confirmed in a statement that teams were trying to locate "two more officers including a pilot and observer".

The Indian military has been hit with a series of incidents in recent months – including the death of at least one crew member after a navy warship sank off the coast of Visakhapatnam in November 2014.

In February last year, two sailors died after a fire on board a nuclear submarine off the coast of Mumbai.

Read more: four bodies are discovered aboard sunken Indian submarine

In March the same year, a navy officer died on board a ship which was being built at a dockyard in Mumbai. And in August 2013, 18 sailors died when a submarine sank after a fire at the same dockyard.