More than 36 hours after Coast Guard helicopter crash-landing, search still on for pilot
The aircraft with four crew members crash-landed in the Arabian Sea off Gujarat’s Porbandar coast. While one was rescued, two others were found dead.
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An advanced light helicopter (ALH) of the Coast Guard had made a hard landing into the sea some 34 nautical miles off Porbandar at 11 pm on Tuesday. (Photo: X/@anishsingh21)More than 36 hours after an Indian Coast Guard (ICG) helicopter crash-landed in the Arabian Sea off Gujarat’s Porbandar coast, one of its four crew members remained missing, and a search and rescue operation continued for the third day on Wednesday.
An advanced light helicopter (ALH) of the Coast Guard had made a hard landing into the sea some 34 nautical miles off Porbandar at 11 pm on Tuesday. It was on a mission to evacuate a crew member of an India-flagged oil tanker, Hari Leela, who had suffered head injuries.
The helicopter had two pilots and two aircrew divers on board. While one aircrew diver was rescued alive, the bodies of one pilot and another aircrew diver of the helicopter were recovered on Tuesday. It had taken off from the Porbandar station of the ICG, and made a hard landing by deploying emergency floaters while approaching the tanker, officers of IGC said.
“The other pilot of the helicopter is still missing. Our search and rescue mission in the area of the incident is still on,” sources in the ICG told The Indian Express on Wednesday morning.
The Coast Guard had deployed its four ships and two aircraft for the mission soon after the helicopter crash-landed. “The aircraft are scanning the area while ships are also surveying the area,” said sources.
Incidentally, last week, the ICG had deployed AHL helicopters to rescue people during flash floods in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat.
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