(Eds: With fresh inputs)Mumbai, Jan 13 (PTI) A Pawan Hans helicopter with sevenpeople on-board, including five ONGC officers and two pilots,crashed off the Mumbai coast minutes after it took off for thestate-owned company's oil installation in the Arabian sea.
So far, five bodies have been recovered, the Coast Guardand the Navy said in their statements.
Search operation is on for other missing persons.
The Pawan Hans helicopter with five Oil and Natural GasCorporation (ONGC) officers, including three of the level ofDeputy General Managers, went missing around 10.40 hourstoday.
ONGC, Coast Guard and Navy pressed helicopters andspeed boats as soon as the information of the chopper goingmissing was received at the Juhu helibase.
ONGC has key oil and gas fields off the Mumbai coastand Pawan Hans helicopters routinely ferry company employeesand officers to the oil installations that are situated as faras 160 kilometres from the coastline.
The field in the offshore include Mumbai High, thenation's largest oil field and Bassein fields, the largest gasfield.
The helicopter crash is not the first accident inONGC's history. In August 2003, an Mi-172 helicopter crashedoff the Mumbai coast killing 27 people and pilot on-board.
"ONGC vessels and choppers along with the Coast Guard andIndian Navy are combing the areas where the chopper hasapparently crashed," the ONGC statement read.
"Identification of the bodies is in progress," it read.
The chopper Dauphin N3 went missing after taking offfrom the Juhu aerodrome.
The chopper, bearing registration number VT-PWA, wasscheduled to land at the designated oil rig at Mumbai High at11 am.
In a statement, the Coast Guard said, "Search teams fromICGS Agrim were able to locate and recover five bodies fromwater. The floating debris was also recovered by the ship.
The search operation for the remaining crew is continuingin coordination with other ships and aircraft from ONGC andthe Indian Navy. The recovered bodies along with debris havebeen handed over to ONGC vessel at the crash site for furtherformalities, it said.
"At about 1120 Hrs on 13 January, Headquarters, CoastGuard Region (W) received information from ONGC about ahelicopter with seven persons (two pilots and five passengers)missing in position about 22 Nm North West from Uttan Light(16-17 Nm from land). The location falls in theapproach/return leg of route taken by ONGC helicopters whileproceeding to oil rigs in Mumbai high area," it added.
"A Dornier aircraft was immediately launched from CoastGuard Air Station Daman and reached the area for search.
Certain debris was reported by the aircraft. Further, IndianCoast Guard Ship (ICGS) Agrim, on patrolling off Mumbai wasdiverted to the crash site and reached the datum at about 1230hrs.
"The ship also reported widespread debris in the area andbegan search for the missing passengers and crew fromaircraft," it added.
Four more Coast Guard ships based at Mumbai (ICGSSamudra Prahari, ICGS Achook, ICGS C-154 and ICGS C-434) apartfrom ICGS Agrim were pressed into service and reached thedatum to widen the search parameter.
Besides, another two Dornier aircraft were deployed fromCoast Guard Air Station Daman to augment the search effort, itadded.
A release from the Navy said, "The naval ships haverecovered pieces of debris of the ill-fated helicopter andcontinue the search for two missing crew members. Five bodieshave been recovered so far."The Navy said the two Fast Interceptor Crafts, INS Tarasaand the frigate INS Teg of the Indian Navy joined the rescueeffort with diving teams and a Chetak helicopter operating onboard INS Teg joined the operation for survivors of the PawanHans helicopter.
"In addition, Seaking helicopters from INS Shikra anda Dornier recce aircraft from Porbandar have been operatingthrough the day. A P8-I long-range maritime reconnaissanceaircraft from INS Rajali near the East Coast has also arrivedin the area to assist the search. INS Makar, a naval surveyship with the latest side-scan sonar and underwater camerashas also sailed from Karwar to augment the SAR effort," annaval release said.
An ONGC official said Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhanvisited the bereaved families in the city this evening.
Of the five senior officials that the ONGC lost in theaccident, two were living in Bandra Colony, one in Kalina, onein Vasai and one in Delhi, he said.
However, the ONGC refused to name the officials sayingthat all the bodies are yet to be identified by their familiesand two more bodies are yet to be recovered.
The bodies recovered so far have been sent to CooperHospital for post-mortem, the official added.
A senior Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)official said the aircraft accident investigation body AAIBwill probe the Pawan Hans chopper crash.
"Since it is a clear accident, this chopper crash will beprobed by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB),"the official said.
He said the DGCA will extend all the necessary help tothe AAIB in conducting the probe.
AAIB is the apex body which probes serious incidents andaccidents, involving aircraft registered in India and comesunder the civil aviation ministry.
Pawan Hans Ltd said in a statement that the French-madeDauphin SA 365N3 helicopter met with an with an accident andthe chopper crash is being probed by the aviation regulationDGCA.
"There were five passengers and two crew members onboard. The search and rescue operations are in progress," itsaid.
Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinhaexpressed deep anguish over the loss of lives.
"IndiaCoastGuard Ship on receipt of informationreached area, located the debris, picked up a body at 1230hrs," he said on Twitter.
"So far resulted in 03 body recovery. Search & rescueoperations are underway. Aircraft Accident InvestigationBureau will launch thorough inquiry," he tweeted. PTI VT ANZBEN IAS RAM NRB RSY NPGVS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.