The Coast Guard has recovered bodies of four people onboard the Pawan Hans helicopter that went missing off the Mumbai coast on Saturday morning.
The debris of the chopper, which was heading to ONGC’s north field with total seven people on board, has also been located by the Coast Guard ship. Some News channel reported that three ships and three helicopters are involved in a large-scale search and rescue operation, which is underway.
The chopper, Dauphin N3, bearing registration number VT-PWA, took off from Juhu aerodrome at 10.25 am on Saturday, with five ONGC employees and two pilots onboard. Coast Guard shared the identities of two of the four bodies recovered so far: VK Bindulal Babu and Pankaj Garg.
According to reports, all the employees on-board are deputy general managers. The report further revealed names of other employees who were on the chopper: Sarvannan, Jose Anthony, and P Shrinivasan.
Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan tweeted that he had requested Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to provide Coast Guard’s assistance in the rescue operation. He further said that ONGC Chairman Shashi Shanker has rushed to Mumbai in view of the incident.