Chopper crash in Arabian Sea: Injured crew member from oil tanker discharged from hospital, search for coast guard pilot continues on fourth day

“He has boarded a flight from Jamnagar to Mumbai,” said Suresh Sikotra, Hari Leela’s shipping agent in Porbandar.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Vinod’s cousin Kaushal Kumar said, “My brother saw the Coast Guard helicopter approach the sea.”

Sikotra added, “However, the helicopter crashed while approaching the tanker. It was dark and the crew members of Hari Leela, along with fishermen who were in the area, tried their best but couldn’t save the two Coast Guard personnel. However, the fishermen managed to rescue one personnel.”

He further said that despite the air mission having ended in disaster, the Coast Guard managed to bring Vinod to shore.

“The Coast Guard diverted its ship ICG Abheek towards the place of incident, shifted Vinod Kumar from Hari Leela to Abheek and brought him to Porbandar around 4 pm on Tuesday,” said Sikotra, adding, the injured engineer was then admitted to a private hospital.

Sikotra said that Indian-flagged Hari Leela was headed back to Mumbai after discharging 10,000 metric tonne of high-speed diesel at Kandla port in Kutch. The diesel consignment belonged to Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, he said, adding the tanker’s crew had 20 members.

The shipping agent said that Vinod, who hails from Supaul district in Bihar and has been working with Merchant Navy since 2014, sustained serious injuries in both his hands after an air-compressor motor in the engine room of Hari Leela burst and turbine blades hit him.

“It was after this that Hari Leela made a distress call to the Marine Rescue Coordination Centre of the Indian Coast Guard in Mumbai and sought help to airlift Vinod Kumar and take him to a hospital in Porbandar on the night of September 2,” Sikotra added.

As per the Coast Guard, in response to the distress call from the oil tanker, four personnel from the ICG station in Porbandar launched an advanced light helicopter (AHL) at 11 pm on Monday. The personnel on board included commandant Rakesh Kumar Rana, commandant (junior grade) Vipin Babu, pradhan navik Karan Singh and aircrew diver Gautam Kumar.

While Rana was the pilot-in-command for the mission, Babu was the second pilot. Singh and Gautam Kumar were the aircrew divers responsible for lowering a bucket and then pulling the tanker’s injured crew member aboard the helicopter with the help of a winch.

The chopper reached the area where Hari Leela was operating, 34 nautical miles off Porbandar, but made a hard landing and ditched into the sea at 11.15 pm on Monday while approaching the tanker, said Coast Guard officers.

While Gautam Kumar was rescued, Babu and Singh were found dead inside the fuselage of the crashed helicopter.

The Coast Guard, Navy and local fishermen have been intensively scanning the waters of the Arabian Sea since Monday night for Rana.

The Navy’s “clearance diving” team, which has highly skilled personnel who perform a variety of underwater tasks, along with a specialised vessel are assisting in the search and rescue operations of Rana, said Coast Guard PRO Amit Uniyal.

“The search for one missing air crew member is still on with the help of four Indian Coast Guard ships, two Indian Navy ships, and aircraft. Average depth in area is 55 m,” he added.