A glimmer of hope appeared on Thursday for relatives of the 25 sailors when one of the families claimed that the mobile phone carried by a crew member rang but went unanswered on Wednesday.

Officials said they would pursue the lead with Turkey, but added that they could not come to any conclusion based on this.

Mechanic Hriday Chauhan’s uncle Rajendra Chauhan, a sailor himself, has flown down from the US and is seeking details of the ship’s EPIRB or Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon, a tracking transmitter which signals maritime distress. It is fitted above the bridge of the ship and normally gets activated when it comes in contact with marine water. “I am not willing to believe that the ship has sunk,” he said.

However, Santosh C Biswas, a director at Pelican, said the “captain may have kept it in a secure location”. “It must have not worked because of that,” he said.