Overview
- The mechanised fishing boat AP. MO 135 sailed from Odalarevu on August 3 and the crew’s last phone contact came on August 7 when they reported heading toward the Odisha coast.
- Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard vessels plus Dornier aircraft and a Navy helicopter have been deployed with seven ships and repeated aerial sorties in the expanded Bay of Bengal search.
- Officials say the boat had a VHF radio, about 1,000 litres of diesel and provisions for roughly 17 days, a supply level that made searches through about August 20 especially urgent.
- Andhra Pradesh has registered a missing‑person case, the chief minister reviewed operations and authorities have alerted neighbouring states and regional coast guard centres to widen the hunt.
- Reports differ on whether seven or eight fishermen are missing and a separate overboard case involving a fisherman named Appanna off Visakhapatnam is being searched concurrently, prompting calls for better boat registration and safety procedures.