Chennai, June 18 (IANS): The search for the missing Dornier aircraft of the Indian Coast Guard continued on Thursday, and a Reliance Industries vessel is expected to join the operation on Friday morning.

The Reliance Industries vessel has remotely operated equipment for the search. It is expected to arrive here Friday morning.

Coast Guard officials said there has been no trace yet of the surveillance aircraft, which vanished mysteriously on June 8 night.

The aircraft with three crew members -- all in their 30s -- went missing while returning to base after a regular surveillance sortie.

Since June 9, the Coast Guard and the Indian Navy have been scouting the Bay of Bengal areas near the Indian coast off Puducherry, but have achieved no results in locating the missing plane.

Coast Guard officials met reporters after family members of the missing crew started speaking to the media and posting messages on social networking sites like Twitter.

One of the family members urged officials to seek foreign technological assistance to locate the missing plane and the crew members.