The Hindu : Wreckage of ONGC copter found

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 13, 2003

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Wreckage of ONGC copter found

By Arunkumar Bhatt

MUMBAI Aug. 12. Divers of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation today located the wreckage of the helicopter that crashed 30 nautical miles off the Mumbai coast yesterday killing 25 persons.

The copter was found in the pre-dawn hours lying upside down at a depth of about 55 metres and about 180 metres from the offshore oil platform Sagar Kiran in the Neelam Oilfield. The ONGC's diving tender, C-Mac 2, reached the spot after a Coast Guard Dornier aircraft gave the location, the Coast Guard Chief Operations Officer, DIG R.S. Sharma, told The Hindu.

Arrangements are being made to retrieve the wreck.

The divers also found two pieces of a rotor blade about 150 metres from Sagar Kiran.

The ONGC said in a press note that the two survivors, executive engineer V.S. Mandloi and A.J. Mhatre, a Roustabout, had escaped through the rear hatch of the helicopter.

"In a singular act of courage, they released a life-raft and tried, unsuccessfully, to rescue other passengers," the note said. They were picked up by the rig's rescue boat. Quoting eyewitnesses, it said the helicopter went into a spin and nose-dived into the sea immediately after take-off from Sagar Kiran.

"There is a one per cent chance of finding a survivor," said DIG Sharma, "and hence we are continuing the search". One Dornier fixed wing aircraft and a Chetak helicopter of the Coast Guard have teamed up with the ONGC chopper for the search effort.

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