Four people, including three ONGC employees, died after a Pawan Hans helicopter fell into the Arabian Sea near the Mumbai coast on Tuesday, the company said. The chopper was carrying nine passengers, two pilots and seven others, including six ONGC employees. The helicopter was attempting to land at ONGC rig, Sagar Kiran, when the incident happened.
All the nine people were rescued successfully by ONGC and Navy vessels, while four of them were unconscious and taken to hospital. They succumbed later at the hospital.
"All nine persons onboard helicopter were rescued. Unfortunately, four of them, brought unconscious to the Mumbai base and taken to the hospital, lost the battle of life. ONGC deeply mourns this loss," ONGC said in a tweet.
The helicopter, a brand new Sikorsky chopper that Pawan Hans had recently taken on lease, made an emergency landing on the water about 1.5 km from the landing zone on the rig. However, the chopper fully inflated its floaters, helping it to stay afloat, as it went into the sea.
The rescue operation comprised ONGC's offshore supply vessel Malviya-16 and a boat from the oil rig Sagar Kiran. The Indian Coast Guard deployed its helicopters to drop rafts near the chopper and the Indian Navy sent an ALH and a Sea King chopper for rescue efforts, PTI reported.
The cause of the emergency landing on water is not immediately clear.
ONGC has several oil and gas fields off the Mumbai coast and Pawan Hans helicopters are used to ferry company employees and officers to the oil installations.
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. All seven died.
(With inputs from PTI)