Three Indian Coast Guard Personnel Missing After 'Hard Emergency Landing' During Rescue Mission, Search Operation Underway

The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) on Tuesday (3 September) said that three of its four crew members, who went on a rescue mission off the coast of Porbandar in Gujarat, are missing

At 11 pm on Monday, the ICG launched an Advanced Light Helicopter to evacuate an injured crew member from the Motor Tanker Hari Leela. The helicopter had to make an emergency hard landing and ditched into the sea.

"One crew member recovered, search for the remaining three crew members is in progress. ICG has deployed four ships and two aircraft for rescue efforts," the security force said on X.

The helicopter had two pilots and two aircrew divers on board. Of them, one diver has been recovered while another diver and two pilots are still missing and the search operation is in progress.

An ICG officer, expressing hope, said, "Pilots and aircrew divers are trained to escape from aircraft in emergency situations like this. But we are ascertaining details as to what has happened in this incident."

"The helicopter had taken off for medical evacuation of a crew member who had suffered head injuries on board a tanker. However, something happened while the helicopter was approaching the tanker," he explained.