In an unfortunate event here on Saturday, a helicopter carrying five ONGC employees and two others crashed near Mumbai’s coast. The rescue party managed to recover five bodies while two are still missing. On Saturday morning just after take-off from the Juhu Aerodrome, the helicopter’s communication with ground air control was lost. At 10:30 am the Dauphin N3 helicopter with registration number VT PWA lost its communication with the air traffic control after taking-off for about 30 nautical miles from the coast. The passengers included 5 members of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and two others. Their destination was the Offshore development Area in the field of Mumbai High. The ongoing search operation has been conducted by the Indian Coast Guard. Immediate Support Vessel and speedboats with divers were deployed in the area to search the debris of the helicopter and find the dead bodies. Indian Navy spokesperson in a tweet said that the fifth body has been found and brought back to the ICGS Agrim.
The helicopter took off from the coast of Mumbai and it was to reach the oil rig at Bombay High at 11 am. The passengers included pilots Captain Ohtkar and Captain Katoch. Deputy general manager Pankaj Garg and VK Bindu Lal Babu along with R Saravanan, Jose Anthony, and PN Sreenivasan were also on the helicopter. The ONGC said that they were trying to comb the area to recover the bodies with the help of coast guard and Indian navy. The corporation said that they were using every means possible in the search operation. The Indian Navy deployed INS Teg, a stealth frigate and surveillance aircraft P8i in the search operation.
A Coast Guard spokesperson said that they have launched a Dornier Aircraft and helicopters from Daman. They were successful in locating some debris but not sure if it belonged to the crashed helicopter.
The search operation included the deployment of two Immediate Support Vessels (ISV) and three cost guards unit. The unit was already in the area and the Navy spokesperson said that they have also launched Seeking 42B helicopter for the search operation.
The crash of the Pawan Hans chopper was an unfortunate event and the reason for the crash is under investigation. The investigation will be done by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Body (AAIB), said a senior Director General of Civil Investigation (DGCA).
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Body is the apex body which probes serious accident involving choppers, aircraft, and helicopters. The body comes under the Ministry of Civil Aviation and it will probe the crash of the Pawan Hans helicopter.
Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil aviation expressed anguish over the unfortunate event and the loss of lives. He took to the social media site Twitter to express his grief and said that Indian Cost Guards reached the stop as soon as they got the news and combed the area for debris of the crashed helicopters and bodies. A similar accident happened in 2003 when an ONGC helicopter crashed in the sea on its way to one of the exploration site.
