The bodies of two Indian Coast Guard (ICG) officials, who went missing after a rescue helicopter crashed into the Arabian Sea off Porbandar coast in Gujarat on Monday night, have been recovered. The search for the third missing person continues.
The crash happened around 11 pm on Monday during a mission to evacuate a seriously injured crew member from the Indian-flagged vessel approximately 45 kilometres off the coast of Porbandar.
A statement issued by the ICG read: "On 02 Sep 2024, India Coast Guard ALH helicopter was launched at 2300 hrs to evacuate an injured crew member from the Motor Tanker Hari Leela off Porbandar, Gujarat. The helicopter had to make an emergency hard landing and ditched into the sea. One crew member recovered, and the search for the remaining three crew members is in progress."
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The chopper had four personnel onboard, of which one was rescued immediately. A search was launched, and the agency deployed four ships and two aircraft to search and rescue the missing crew members.
The bodies recovered were the bodies of Commandant Vipin Babu and P/NVK Karan Singh, Porbandar Coast Guard DIG Pankaj Agarwal told reporters. He added that the search for Commandant Rajesh Kumar Rana is still underway. The cause of the emergency landing is still under investigation.
The ICG chopper deployed for the operation had earlier undertaken several such missions, including saving the lives of 67 people during the recent cyclonic storm in Gujarat.
Other ICG missions include the recent operation carried out onboard distressed MV ITT Puma. The incident happened last month when it sank approximately 90 nautical miles south of Sagar Island in West Bengal. The ICG then carried out a challenging rescue operation and successfully saved 11 crew members. Two ICG vessels and a Dornier aircraft were engaged in the operation.