Mumbai: Five days after a Pawan Hans chopper crashed on Saturday, January 13, with seven persons on board including five senior ONGC officials and two pilots, the body of the last missing passenger, VKBL Babu, was found Thursday evening. An acquaintance of MrBabu’s family said, “We are in a state of shock. The family is in mourning.” With this, the mortal remains of all passengers onboard, including pilots, have been recovered, said officials.
Most of the aircraft debris, including critical components such as engines, landing gear, cockpit and flight data recorder, main gear box and tail gear box, has already been collected by the Coast Guard, ONGC and Naval ships and handed over for investigation. As such, the search for survivors and aircraft debris now stands terminated by the commander Coast Guard Region (W). However, the Coast Guard continues to maintain a high level of coordination with ONGC to ascertain the reason for the crash, which led to the unfortunate demise of all passengers aboard the aircraft.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has even written to aviation security regulator, BCAS (Bureau of Civil Aviation Security), to look into a possible sabotage angle in the chopper crash. According to the AAIB, not only the technical aspects of the crash but also a sabotage angle, if any, needs to be investigated. Hence, an official letter has been sent to BCAS to initiate a separate probe
.The AAIB, , has a mandate to investigate accidents and serious incidents involving aircraft; and has initiated a probe soon after the Pawan Hans chopper crash was confirmed. The main lookout of the BCAS, the country’s nodal aviation security body, on the other hand, is to check whether security was compromised leading to possible sabotage.
