Search operations are continuing in Chandil Dam for the sixth day on Sunday to trace the trainer aircraft that went missing after taking off from Jharkhand's Jamshedpur on August 20, officials said.

Teams of the navy and the NDRF are engaged in the operations at Seraikela-Kharswan district to locate the two-seater aircraft – Cessna-152, they said.

“Search is still underway in the dam,” Sub-Divisional Magistrate (Chandil) Subhra Rani said.

Bodies of the trainee pilot and his instructor, who were on board, were found in the dam on Thursday.

The officials said the bodies of trainee pilot Shubhrodeep Dutta and pilot-in-command Captain Jeet Satru Anand were handed over to their families after a post-mortem examination was conducted.

Alchemist Aviation Private Ltd, which owns the aircraft, had said in a statement that it was too early to comment about the reasons for the crash.

"The aircraft had 80 litres of fuel in it with an endurance of 4 hours 30 minutes, and the flying time was scheduled to be one hour," it said.

The plane lost contact with the Jamshedpur Air Traffic Control Tower (ATC) around 11.10 am on August 20.

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