A Pawan Hans helicopter, with seven people onboard, crashed into the sea moments after taking off on Tuesday morning from Port Blair. According to reports, all the passengers on the chopper have been safely rescued.
The crash reportedly occurred around 9:30 am on Tuesday. According to a Pawan Hans spokesperson, "the chopper experienced a “short landing incident” near Mayabunder in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands”.
"The helicopter had taken off from Port Blair with two crew members and five passengers on board. All have been rescued and are safe. No injuries have been reported," the spokesperson added.
According to reports, officials familiar with the incident said the helicopter plunged into the sea about 300 metres before the runway at around 9:30 am, just as it was preparing to land in Mayabunder.
The development follows a tragic air ambulance crash in Jharkhand’s Chatra a day earlier, in which all seven people on board were killed.
The Beechcraft C90 air ambulance, run by Redbird Airways Pvt Ltd, was flying from Ranchi to Delhi when it went down on Monday evening in the forested Bariatu Panchayat area of Simaria.
Those who lost their lives were Captain Vivek Vikas Bhagat, Captain Savrajdeep Singh, Sanjay Kumar, Dr Vikas Kumar Gupta, Sachin Kumar Mishra, Archana Devi and Dhuru Kumar.
In an official statement, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said the Beechcraft C90 aircraft (VT-AJV) was operating a medical evacuation flight on the Ranchi–Delhi route when it crashed in Kasaria Panchayat of Chatra district.
According to the DGCA, the aircraft departed Ranchi at 7:11 pm IST and established contact with Kolkata at 7:34 pm IST. However, it subsequently lost communication and radar contact with Kolkata at around 100 nautical miles southeast of Varanasi.
