Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan meets kin of chopper crash

Mumbai: Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday met the family of an Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) employee, who lost his life in the helicopter crash.

Earlier in the day, Pradhan said he would discuss the crash with Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

"The Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard are on their job. I am also going to Mumbai to coordinate things. I will discuss it with Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. She is also cooperating and has instructed the Navy and the Coast Guard to look into the issue extensively," he said, as per ANI.

Mumbai: Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan met family of a #ONGC employee who lost his life in the helicopter crash incident earlier today. Total 7 people were on-board the helicopter that crashed, total 4 bodies have been recovered so far. pic.twitter.com/uWrMMRnex1 — ANI (@ANI) January 13, 2018

A Pawan Hans helicopter with seven people onboard, including five ONGC officers and two pilots, crashed off the Mumbai coast minutes after it took off for the state-owned company's oil installation in the Arabian sea.

So far, five bodies have been recovered, the Coast Guard and the Navy said in their statements.

#SAR 4 X INships Teg, Tarasa, T11 & T45 in area. 1 X Dornier & P8I each on task. Seaking 42B relieving another Seaking42C on task. Chetak ex - Teg on search task. 5 bodies recovered. Wreckage & life jackets recovered being brought back on ONGC OSV Hull Anand. Search 2 continue pic.twitter.com/8Yd1tu3YgJ — SpokespersonNavy (@indiannavy) January 13, 2018

Some pics of the rescue ops courtesy @IndiaCoastGuard 1/2 pic.twitter.com/taMh8pZkj2 — SpokespersonNavy (@indiannavy) January 13, 2018

The Pawan Hans helicopter with five Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) officers, including three of the level of Deputy General Managers, went missing around 10.40 hours on Saturday.

ONGC, Coast Guard and Navy pressed helicopters and speedboats as soon as the information of the chopper going missing was received at the Juhu helibase.

ONGC has key oil and gas fields off the Mumbai coast and Pawan Hans helicopters routinely ferry company employees and officers to the oil installations that are situated as far as 160 kilometres from the coastline.

The field in the offshore include Mumbai High, the nation's largest oil field and Bassein fields, the largest gas field.

The helicopter crash is not the first accident in ONGC's history. In August 2003, an Mi-172 helicopter crashed off the Mumbai coast killing 27 people and pilot onboard.

(With PTI inputs)