When their naval trainer fighter aircraft Kiran ditched and fell into the Arabian Sea two nautical miles off the Goa coast at around 12.20 pm on Tuesday, neither knew whether their distress signal, flashed before ejecting from the aircraft, would be picked up. It was, by the Coast Guard air station at Dabolim, which mounted a two-pronged rescue operation and saved the two pilots 15 minutes after their ordeal began.

Two Coast Guard boats stationed at the Vasco-da-Gama port were dispatched to the crash site, 10 nautical miles away. A helicopter was also flown in with two divers on board. After the pilots were spotted at sea, another chopper was flown in to pick them up and transport them to the naval hospital, INS Sangivani, at Vasco-da-Gama.

The two-seater Kiran jet aircraftare used by Navy fighter pilots before they graduate to the more advanced Harrier aircraft.