Helicopter crash off Porbandar coast: Coast Guard seeks help of Navy

The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) on Wednesday said that it has sought help of the Navy to look for commandant Vipin Babu, who went missing after the helicopter he was piloting crashed in the Arabian Sea off Porbandar coast on Monday night.

This comes on a day when the Coast Guard handed over the bodies one pilot and another crew member killed in the accident to their families. Meanwhile, the Coast Guard said it was taking the help of experts to salvage the fuselage of the helicopter in an attempt to investigate the accident.

Rana, a winner of the President’s Tatrakshak Medal (TM) and three other ICG personnel commandant (junior grade) Vipin Babu, pradhan navik Karan Singh and aircrew diver Gautam Kumar  were part of a mission launched at 11 pm on Monday for medical evacuation of a crew member of an oil tanker that was sailing off Porbandar coast.

The two pilots and two aircrew divers had taken off on board an advanced light helicopter (AHL) from Porbandar station of Coast Guard but their helicopter made a hard landing and then ditched into the Arabian Sea, 34 nautical miles off Porbandar at 11.15 pm on Monday, while approaching the oil tanker Hari Leela, the Coast Guard said.

While Kumar was subsequently rescued, bodies of Babu – who was co-piloting the chopper – and Singh were found in the fuselage of the helicopter on Tuesday, Coast Guard officers said.