Five days after a Pawan Hans helicopter crashed and sank off the Bombay High, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and Navy personnel late on Monday evening recovered a portion of the wreckage and the body of one of the two pilots on board the ill-fated helicopter.
In a prolonged search operation coordinated by the ICG’s Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC Mumbai), with the help of the Navy, coast guard and ONGC, the ICG personnel involved located the wreckage of the Pawan Hans Helicopter (of Dauphin make) AS 365 N3 was located on the sea bed.
“The cockpit with body of one pilot was recovered late this evening. The wreckage of the helicopter has been recovered in few parts at a depth of 75 meters and search and recovery of the remaining parts. We are on the look-out one more missing pilot,” a defence spokesperson said late in the night.
The helicopter, with two pilots on board, had crashed and sank in the Arabian Sea, 80 km north-west off Mumbai. The two pilots had gone missing. The ships of the Indian Coast Guard, Indian Naval Ships and OSVs of ONGC were pressed into the service.
The helicopter was carrying out night landing practice at the ONGC oil platforms at the Bombay High when the mishap took place on the night of November 4.
“Based on a request received from the Pawan Hans ltd, Indian Navy had deployed two vessels for assistance in location of the submerged debri/fuselage. The Sonar searches were undertaken by the ships of Indian Navy as well as MSV Fugro Mapper since Wednesday last. The searches were complemented by the surface search by Naval and Coast Guard Ships & Dornier aircraft as well as other vessels of ONGC,” the spokesperson said.
“After analysing throughly the Underwater locator Beacon and sonar inputs, diving was undertaken in various locations for the past four days. Finally, on the basis of the inputs received from INS Makar and MSV Fugro Mapper, the diving undertaken by PSV Samudra Sevak led to the location of the ill-fated helicopter wreckage. While we have recovered the body of one pilot, our search is on for the other pilot and remaining wreckage of the helicopter,” the spokesperson said.