Pawan Hans helicopter makes emergency landing in Arabian Sea; All 9 rescued

A Pawan Hans helicopter with 9 people on board, including 2 crew members on a flight to Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) offshore oil Rig Sagar Kiran, made an emergency landing in the Arabian Sea off Mumbai on Tuesday. Rescue operations were immediately launched, and nine persons were rescued, said ONGC.

Officials said that the helicopter involved in the incident was a Sikorsky S-76 American medium-size commercial utility helicopter. As per initial reports, the helicopter (bearing registration VT PWI) landed 51 nautical miles from Juhu in Mumbai.

In a Tweet, ONGC said, 6 persons have been rescued by ONGC. While the first four were rescued by ONGC vessel Malviya-16, the fifth person was rescued by ONGC rig Sagar Kiran rescue boat. Details of the 6^th person rescued were not immediately available. Indian Coast Guard officials said that they had deployed sea and air assets for the rescue operation.