India navy plane crashes off Goa leaving two missing

Two crew members are missing after an Indian navy plane crashed into the sea off the western state of Goa.

The navy said the plane, a Dornier surveillance aircraft, was on a routine flight when it went down late on Tuesday. The cause is not known.

One crew member was rescued and a search operation has been launched for the missing two, navy spokesman Rahul Sinha said in a statement.

It is the latest in a series of mishaps for the Indian military

Last November, one crew member died and four were missing when a navy ship sank during exercises off the coastal city of Visakhapatnam.

In March 2014, a navy officer died in an accident on board a ship being built at a dockyard in Mumbai.

A month earlier, a fire on board a nuclear submarine off Mumbai left two sailors dead. The navy chief resigned in response.

And in August 2013, 18 sailors died in one of the navy's worst disasters when a submarine sank after a fire at the same dockyard in Mumbai.