Lagatar24 Desk
Mumbai, June 28: Four people were killed after an Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) helicopter made a controlled emergency landing at sea close to the Sagar Kiran oil rig in Bombay High, which is situated about 60 nautical miles west of Mumbai.
All nine individuals on board, including the two pilots, six ONGC employees, and one worker for the contractor of the public sector oil major, were successfully rescued during a roughly two-hour operation involving ships and helicopters from the Indian Coast Guard and Indian Navy. However, four of those who were saved died after being sent to a private hospital in Mumbai.
Mukesh Patel, Vijay Mandloi, Satyambad Patra, and Sanju Francis have been named as the deceased.
The Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC) in Mumbai got a distress call from the Australian and Indian MCC at around 11.46 am, according to the Indian Coast Guard. The MRCC was able to link the alert to a Pawan Hans Helicopter (Sikorsky S-76D) working for ONGC at Bombay High, a region of the Arabian Sea where ONGC has major oil and gas production rigs and equipment.
While attempting an emergency landing on an oil platform, the helicopter, which was carrying two pilots and seven crew members, was forced to land at sea.