ONGC loses 2,000 barrels a day due to Pawan Hans stir

The five pilots who included regional General Manager Parminder Singh Sood and Deputy General Manager A D Naik stayed away as they apprehended danger to their lives, Pawan Hans sources said. Sood and Naik were not available for comment.

Three executive pilots who were despatched from Delhi to operate flights were unable to fly today. “There was nobody to give them orders,” said an official from the company’s personnel department.

Consequently, ONGC officials are depending solely on Mesco Airlines helicopters to ferry oil rig crew from the mainland to Bombay High. However, due to their bigger size, Mesco’s helicopters are not suitable for transporting men and material from ONGC’s process platforms to smaller unmanned rigs. While work on some of the unmanned platforms have been suspended, others are reached by boats. Officials of the Commission have adopted a wait-and-watch attitude toward the situation’s development in the next few days before deciding on alternatives. Incidentally, attempts by Pawan Hans to induct the large capacity MI-172 transport helicopter has hit a snag due to the stir. Four Delhi-based pilots training on the 25-seater helicopter under a Russian crew did not report for flying today.

Meanwhile, the Russian instructors continue to be put at city hotels waiting for the stir to be called off. Meanwhile, Pawan Hans top brass led by the company’s chairman H S Hundal are scheduled to arrive from Delhi today evening to hold talks with agitating pilots. The Pawan Hans Pilots Guild are demanding protection from employees attached to the company’s All India Civil Aviation Employees Union.