Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370/MAS370), also marketed as China Southern Airlines flight 748 (CZ748) through a codeshare, was a scheduled passenger flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, China. On 8 March 2014, the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft operated by Malaysia Airlines disappeared in flight with 227 passengers on board from 15 countries, most of whom were Chinese, and 12 crew members. It had 5 Indians on board. The aircraft last made contact with air traffic control less than an hour after take-off.

As the search for the missing plane extended from South China Sea to the Andaman Sea, Malaysia requested India on Thursday to partner in the search operation. Indian Navy, Indian Air Force and Coast Guard was subsequently pressed into operation.

According to sources as the operation in the Andaman Sea did not yield any result, new search area 15 km x 600 km i.e. 9000 sq km along Chennai coast in the Bay of Bengal was indicated by the Malaysian authorities on Friday. This operation is being undertaken by the resources of Eastern Naval Command.

The Chief of the Indian Air Force, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, and the President AFWWA Mrs Lily Raha is on a four day visit to the Eastern sector of the Indian Air Force after a visit to the Tri Service Andaman and Nicobar Command. The responsibility of this command apart from defence of our island territories is to assist in prevention of smuggling, piracy, drug and gun trafficking, poaching and illegal immigration in this region.

After the focus of the search operation shifted to the east of Andaman & Nicobar Islands area. Indian Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard joined the global search along with many other countries. Specific areas was allocated by the Malaysian authorities for search by Indian ships and aircraft. Two ships of Indian Navy, INS Saryu and INS Kumbhir combed the designated areas in South East Andaman Sea. INS Kesari soon replaced INS Kumbhir as it has a helicopter also. Two Dornier aircraft of Air Force and Coast Guard are carried out aerial search in the vicinity of the Andaman coastline.

Headquarter Integrated Defence Staff is coordinating the search efforts by the Services and Coast Guard. The Joint Operations Room has been activated to monitor the progress of the search operations. The Commander-in-Chief Andaman and Nicobar Command, the Overall Force Commander of the Indian Forces is monitoring the operations on the ground from the Maritime Operations Centre at Port Blair and the highest level coordination between the Indian Navy, Indian Air Force and Coast Guard has been achieved to this mammoth task.

The air effort for searching the area extensively include two C-130, one Mi-17 V5 helicopter of Indian Air Force and Dornier and P8i, maritime reconnaissance aircraft of Indian Navy. In addition ships of Indian Navy and Coast Guard are combing the area to locate the possible crash site. Both Navy and Air Force are also ready to reinforce their assets on short notice.
The Commander-in-Chief Andaman and Nicobar Command has been nominated as the Overall Force Commander and Headquarter Integrated Defence Staff is coordinating the entire effort between Ministry of Defence and Services. Indian Navy has been designated the lead Service. The Headquarters Andaman and Nicobar Command being the nodal agency will assist Malaysia in all possible manner for the search in the area of Andaman Sea. The area indicated by Malaysia lies in the South Andaman Sea and is West of Great Nicobar Island. Meanwhile the Defence Crisis Management Group is also being activated from today to monitor the progress of the search operations at Headquarter Integrated Defence Staff.