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Pawan Hans helicopter crashes into sea before landing near Mayabunder
Pawan Hans helicopter crash: The chopper ditched about 300 meters short of Mayabunder helipad in the sea (shallow water) at around 9:30 am.
A Pawan Hans helicopter crashed into the sea before landing in Mayabunder - a town in the northern part of Middle Andaman Island. The helicopter was reportedly carrying seven people.
All passengers of the helicopter belonging to the national chopper carrier were reported to be safe.
The incident took place around 9:30 am on Tuesday, Pawan Hans spokesperson said, adding that the helicopter 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 Pawan Hans spokesperson added.
Issuing a statement hours later, Pawan Hans said PHL Dauphin N3 helicopter (VT PHY) took off from Sri Vijaya Puram (Port Blair) at around 8:30 am for a passenger flight from Sri Vijaya Puram (Port Blair) to Rangat and further to Mayabunder.
The helicopter landed at Rangat helipad around 9:05 am and further took off from Rangat to Mayabunder at around 9:10 am, Pawan Hans stated.
The helicopter ditched about 300 meters short of Mayabunder helipad in the sea (shallow water) at around 9:30 am, according to the statement.
This comes a day after an air ambulance plane crashed in Jharkhand's Chatra, killing all seven people on board.
The Beechcraft C90 air ambulance, operated by Redbird Airways Pvt Ltd, was en route to Delhi from Ranchi when it crashed on Monday evening in the Bariatu Panchayat area of Simaria, located deep inside a forest.
The deceased were identified as Captain Vivek Vikas Bhagat, Captain Savrajdeep Singh, Sanjay Kumar, Dr Vikas Kumar Gupta, Sachin Kumar Mishra, Archana Devi and Dhuru Kumar.
In a 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 sector when it crashed in Kasaria Panchayat of Chatra district.
"The aircraft was airborne from Ranchi at 19:11 IST. After establishing contact with Kolkata at 19:34 IST, the aircraft lost communication and radar contact with Kolkata at approximately 100 nautical miles south-east of Varanasi," it said.
