Pawan Hans helicopter crashes off Mumbai coast, four bodies fished out

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, January 13

A senior official of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) was among four persons who died in a helicopter crash near the Bombay High Oil field this morning, police and Coast Guard officials said.

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ONGC’s Deputy General Manager Pankaj Garg was among five officials of the company who were on board the Pawan Hans helicopter when it crashed 15 minutes after take-off. According to officials, the Dauphin helicopter VT PWA belonging to the public sector Pawan Hans lost contact 15 minutes after taking off at 10.20 this morning. The chopper
was estimated to have been about 50 km off the Mumbai’s coast when the mishap happened, according to the Coast Guard officials.

The helicopter had three hours of fuel on board and had switched radio contact from the Juhu airfield to air traffic controller on board the ONGC oil rig a few minutes before it was lost. “Radio contact was lost at 10.35 am when it was 50 kms from the coast of Mumbai,” a Coast Guard official said. The helicopter was to have landed on the rig at
10.58 am, according to officials.

Dornier helicopters and ships belonging to the Coast Guard have been diverted to the area for search and rescue operations, officials said. Divers have also been deployed to search the bottom of the sea, according to sources.

Later in the afternoon naval authorities recovered what is suspected to be parts of the helicopter from the site.

Officials from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) have rushed to the site. The crash will be probed by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), according to officials here.