MUMBAI: The Coast Guard today said the remains of six of the seven persons, who were aboard the Pawan Hans helicopter that crashed into the sea off the Mumbai coast on Saturday, were recovered.
In a statement in the evening, the Coast Guard said the Cooper Hospital had informed that it had six bodies.
Commenting over the confusion, the Coast Guard said some body parts of the sixth person could have been handed over, along with five bodies, to the ONGC on January 13.
"Today, another body was recovered by an ONGC vessel. We are searching the area to find the remaining body parts, if any," it added.
On January 13, Coast Guard ships had recovered the bodies, most of which had disintegrated severely, and thus, the authorities were unable to ascertain if there were five or six bodies.
The Coast Guard confirmed that ONGC vessel Samudra Sevak had recovered a body of a missing crew of the crashed helicopter today.
The ONGC vessel had also managed to retrieve parts of the aircraft, including the rotor blades, main gearbox, tail gearbox, both the engines and the emergency locator transmitter (ELT), the Coast Guard said.
It added that a high-level delegation from the ONGC and Pawan Hans visited the Coast Guard's western region headquarters today to assess the situation and formulate the further strategy for an early recovery of the debris and body parts, if any.
It said a Dornier aircraft from Daman also continued to scan the area, along with the ships.