ONGC chopper crash death toll rises to 4, search and rescue ops continue
Coast Guard continues search and rescue operations to trace the remaining persons onboard the helicopter (Picture: ANI)
Search and rescue teams have found four bodies after a chopper Pawan Hans helicopter with seven persons, including five ONGC officials and two pilots, on board was lost at sea minutes after taking off from Juhu Airport on Saturday morning.
Two of deceased have been identified as Pankaj Garg and VK Bindu Lal Babu of ONGC. Other gas company employees onboard the chopper were Jose Anthony, R Saravanan and PN Sreenivasan, while Captain Ohatkar and Captain Katoch were flying the aircraft.
The Dauphin N3 chopper, VT PWA, took off at 10.20 am and lost contact with Mumbai ATC and ONGC 15 minutes later. At that time, it was thought to be flying around 55 km off Mumbai’s shoreline, en route to the oil rig at Bombay High oilfields.
The Indian Coast Guard subsequently diverted a ship and an aircraft to the region for a search and rescue operation. At present, 5 ships, two Dornier & two helicopters have been deployed to search for the missing persons.
Indian Coast Guard continues Search and Rescue operations. Four bodies have been recovered at sea near debris of #ONGC helicopter. #Mumbai pic.twitter.com/KDzcXiKpzT
— ANI (@ANI) January 13, 2018
