14 killed in 3 fatal air crashes in Maharashtra over past six months

A Pawan Hans helicopter with 7 on board crashed off Mumbai coast soon after it took off for ONGC oil installation in Arabian sea on Jan 13.

 Mumbai: Maharashtra has witnessed three fatal air crashes since the start of 2018, in which a total of 14 people died. Five people, including four who were on-board, were killed when a 12-seater aircraft crashed in suburban Ghatkopar in Mumbai on Thursday afternoon.

On January 13, a Pawan Hans helicopter with seven people on board crashed off the Mumbai coast minutes after it took off for ONGC's oil installation in the Arabian sea.

The French-made chopper Dauphin N3, bearing registration number VT-PWA, was scheduled to land at the oil rig at Mumbai High but went missing after taking off from the Juhu aerodrome.

Of the seven people killed, five were ONGC officers and the remaining two pilots.

On April 26, an aircraft from the National Flying Training Institute (NFTI) crashed in the Wainganga River near Deori in Tiroda tehsil of Gondia district, eastern Maharashtra, killing two persons on board.

The twin-engine plane DA42 took off around 9:25 am from Birsi but soon dropped altitude and crashed into a cable-car ropeway nearly 20 minutes later over the Wainganga River.