Chennai: On Thursday evening, S. Suresh, father of deputy commandant Subhash Suresh, 28, one of the three officers onboard the missing Coast Guard flight, stepped out of his house in Thillai Ganga Nagar in Nanganallur, to take in some fresh air and also to reflect on the last three days.

“While my son’s duty varies between time spent in office as well as flying, on June 8, he called us around 5 pm to inform us that he was going on a routine sortie. He asked us to sleep, as he would be returning home late,” Suresh recalled.

That was the last conversation which the Coast Guard officer had with his family. “Subsequently, two Coast Guard personnel visited us in the early hours of Tuesday morning to inform about the missing flight.”

It was in 2008 that Subhash, an alumnus of National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, joined the Coast Guard after a brief employment at an IT firm. Following stints at Kochi and Goa, Subhash, a short service commission officer with little less than two years’ service remaining, returned to Chennai and his family.

Stating that Subhash was proud of serving in the uniform, Suresh recalled his son’s words. “Subhash often said he wanted to enrol his one-year-old son in an Army school and see him become a pilot,” the composed father said.

The family retains the firm belief that Subhash will return. “We are very confident that our son will return home and until an official confirmation comes through, we won’t let go of that belief,” Padma, Suresh’s mother, said,before proceeding to visit the Coast Guard’s local headquarters for an update about the search operation.