Pawan Hans helicopter with 9 onboard ditches in Arabian sea, four critical
A Pawan Hans Sikorsky 76D helicopter ditched close to the drilling rig Sagar Kiran in Bombay High on Tuesday. Indian Coast Guard spokesman, Commandant RK Singh said, all nine people have been picked up. Four are in critical condition and are being evacuated to Juhu ONGC hospital by Navy helicopters, said the coast guard spokesperson.
The rig is located over 100 km off the coast of Mumbai. Ditching is a controlled emergency landing carried out by helicopter pilots on water.
Those on board are engineers M Shyamsundar, Mukesh Patel and Vijay Mandloi; others are Pradeep Vasudeo, chemist Ranajit Mal, geologist Satyambad Patra and room boy Sanju Francis.
The helicopter VT PWI ( S 76 D) took off from Juhu at 10.54 am for Sagar Kiran ONGC rig. “The Pawan Hans operations room at Juhu airport was informed by operations room ONGC at 11.45 am that the helicopter has ditched at sea,” said a source.
“This helicopter, first of its kind introduced into offshore operations by ONGC, started working just a month back,” said a source. The cause of the accident is unknown.
“The helicopter has turned upside down after landing on the water. There were a total of 2 pilots and 7 passengers onboard,” the source added.
Indian Coast Guard spokesman, Commandant RK Singh said as per latest input from Coast Guard, all nine survivors picked up including four by naval helicopter after they received SOS after the ONGC helicopter ditches 60NM west of Mumbai at sea in close proximity to oil rig Sagar Kiran. “Coast Guard ship at sea diverted to reach Datum. Another ship sailed out from Mumbai with dispatch to join Rescue Operations. Coast Guard Aircraft dropped Life raft for survivors. International Safety net activated by MRCC (Mumbai). Coast Guard coordinating with Indian Navy and ONGC for mobilisation and augmentation of the rescue effort.”
