June 11: Even as death stared them in the face, the two Pawan Hans pilots, who perished in a crash off Bombay High last month, were thinking of life. While their copter took the deadly plunge, the two showed enough presence of mind to steer it clear of the ONGC's oil rig, Sagar Jyoti averting a mishap and saving several lives.

By sharply swerving to their left and letting their helicopter crash into the sea, Capt. A K Singh and Capt Ravi Kapoor were able to prevent what could have been a disaster. The Dauphin helicopter, VT ELC, was on a rescue operation from WIS platform to the oil rig from where an injured ONGC employee was to be airlifted to a hospital in Mumbai. Due to the urgency of the situation, the pilots decided to come in straight for landing rather than fly a circuit over the oil rig as is the normal practice.

The heroic act of the two pilots in preventing the mishap came to light after the contents of the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) or the `black box', which recorded the last-minute conversation of the two men, was decoded. According to Pawan Hans sources, the pilots apparently had detected some equipment malfunction on board the helicopter and were certain of a crash. The company has given an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the dependents of the two pilots. While the body of Capt. Singh was recovered soon after the crash the remains of Capt. Kapoor are believed to be irretrievably lost.

Officials of the Director General General of Civil Aviation are investigating into the mishap. Major components of the helicopter, including the engines and the internal machinery, were recovered almost a week after the crash.

The loss of Capt Kapoor's body has caused immense trauma to his family who still believe that he will return home. ``The family has been denied the right to cremate his body due to the shoddy search and rescue operation conducted by Pawan Hans,'' a colleague of Capt Kapoor told Express Newsline. Though the helicopter had crashed just a few hundred yards from the rig, its wreckage could not be located for almost a week.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.