The trainer aircraft, a Cessna 152 owned by a private flying school, went missing after taking off from the Sonari aerodrome on Tuesday morning, following which a mega search operation was launched in the nearby areas, including the reservoir of the dam, to locate it, they said.

As the search continued in the reservoir, where it was suspected to have crashed, a body was found floating this morning, they said.

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It was later identified as that of trainee pilot Subhrodeep Dutta, a resident of Adityapur in the Seraikela-Kharsawan district, they added.

Meanwhile, a team of the Indian Navy joined the search for the aircraft and pilot Captain Jeet Satru, 35, a native of Patna.

The 19-member team of the Navy was brought in from Visakhapatnam, officials said.

On Wednesday, a six-member team of NDRF searched the reservoir of the dam for hours.

The reservoir was being searched after villagers claimed the aircraft crashed into it, Superintendent of Police (Seraikela-Kharsawan) Mukesh Kumar Lunayat said.

East Singhbhum's Deputy Commissioner Ananya Mittal said the last location of the aircraft was near Nimdih in Chandil sub-division as per the Air Traffic Control.