Mumbai: Helicopter With ONGC Employees On Board Goes Missing, Indian Coast Guard Alerted

A Pawan Hans helicopter with five ONGC employees and two pilots on board, which took off from Juhu airport in Mumbai Saturday morning has not landed on the designated oil rig. The chopper was scheduled to land at North Field of ONGC at 10.58 am. The last contact made by the chopper with the Air Traffic Control and ONGC was at 10.35 am. It was flying 30 nautical miles off Mumbai.

Search operations for the chopper are underway. “We have deployed all our choppers including from each of our naval bases in search of the missing chopper. It is a Pawan Hans chopper, carrying five employees. We are working towards finding the chopper at the earliest,” a senior ONGC official said.

“We have already diverted ship and aircraft to area. Will update once any news is received,” the Indian Coast Guard said.

VTPWA Dauphin AS365 N3 took off from Juhu airport at 10.20 am.

“2X Immediate Support Vehicles (ISV) already deployed for patrol in area have been diverted for search and rescue along with 3 X Indian Coast Guard units already in area. Seaking 42B helicopter being launched in addition,” the Navy spokesperson said. “One more ship leaving Mumbai harbour. One Dornier getting airborne to join search. One Skg42C standing by at Colaba air station,” it added.

Courtesy : indianexpress