Chennai, July 14 (IANS): Human remains and personal items of the crew such a wrist watch were recovered from the seabed along with the wreckage of the Indian Coast Guard Dornier aircraft that went down into the sea on June 8, an official said on Tuesday.

"Human remains, wrist watches of the crew have been recovered from the seabed. The human remains would be sent for DNA analysis for identification purposes," Inspector General (Eastern Region) Satya Prakash Singh told reporters here.

He said search operations have been called off as most of the aircraft parts been recovered.

He said the flight data recorder, commonly known as the black box, and other recovered items would be submitted to the board of inquiry to ascertain the cause of the mishap.

According to Singh, the aircraft seems to have exploded in the air and crashed into the sea.

Human remains and a wrist watch of one of the crew members was found near the wreckage during Monday night's search.

He said the coastal security agency would send the human remains to Tamil Nadu Forensic Science Department for DNA test to establish the identity of the crew members.

The Dornier aircraft with deputy commandant Vidyasagar (pilot), deputy commandant Subash Suresh (co-pilot) and navigator/observer M.K. Soni went missing on the night of June 8 while returning to its base at Chennai airport after a surveillance sortie along the Tamil Nadu coast and Palk Bay.