Mumbai chopper crash: Another coast guard ship deployed

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], Jan 14 (ANI): One more coast guard ship is deployed from Mumbai for search operation after a Pawan Hans helicopter, carrying five senior officials of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and two pilots, crashed off the Mumbai coast minutes after it took off on Saturday.

INS Makar, twin hulled catamaran hydrograph ship from Karwar, is enroute to augment the search efforts in the area.

A total of 5-6 coast guard ships are deployed in the area already, ONGC officials said.

INS Teg and Tarasa are coordinating the search in the area. ICG Ships Samudra Prahari, Achook & Agrim are also at work in the area.

ICGS Samrat sailed out from Mumbai and joined the search and rescue operations.

ONGC vessel TAG 15 undertaking Side Scan Sonar (SSS) operations have found some debris 600 yards from wreckage position.

Meanwhile, diving team ex- Samudra Sevak is preparing to undertake diving operations in the area.

So far, six bodies have been recovered.

The police informed that the bodies have been brought to Cooper Hospital for postmortem.

A total of seven people were on-board in the Pawan Hans Dauphin N2 that crashed and a total of four bodies have been recovered so far.

Meanwhile, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) identified two of the bodies to be of ONGC employees.

The ONGC, along with the ICG and the Indian Navy, has pressed its helicopter and speedboats for search operations.

The helicopter, which took off from Juhu at 10.20 am, was scheduled to land at ONGC's North Field oil rig at 10.58 am.

The last contact with the Air Traffic Control (ATC) was made at about 10.30 am, 30 nautical miles off Mumbai.

The cause of the tragic incident is still unknown. (ANI)