Mumbai, June 28, 2022 (PPI-OT):At least four persons died after a helicopter ditched into the Arabian Sea near a rig of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, off Mumbai High Fields on Tuesday. The chopper was carrying nine people – seven passengers, reportedly ONGC staffers, and two pilots – and a major operation comprising the ONGC, the Indian Navy, the Indian Coast Guard, and offshore supply vessels, was launched to rescue them.
“All 9 persons on board the helicopter were rescued. Unfortunately, four of them, brought unconscious to the Mumbai base and taken to the hospital, lost the battle of life,” said the ONGC in a tweet this evening.
The circumstances that led to the incident were not immediately known. The helicopter crash is not the first accident in ONGC’s history. In August 2003, a Mi-172 helicopter crashed off the Mumbai coast killing 27 people and the pilot on board.
On January 13, 2018, a Pawan Hans helicopter with seven people on board, including five ONGC officers and two pilots, crashed off the Mumbai coast minutes after it took off for the state-owned company’s oil installation in the Arabian Sea. All seven died.
In 2002, a Dauphin helicopter hired by ONGC crashed into the sea but the 10 passengers were rescued. In April 2003, a Bell 412 helicopter ferrying ONGC personnel crashed while landing at the Juhu aerodrome.
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