Bodies may have touched the chopper blades: Forensic experts

A day after the Pawan Hans helicopter went down with five senior officials of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and two pilots, forensic experts from Cooper Hospital have said the severely dismembered condition of the six recovered bodies were probably the result of them coming in contact with the chopper blades mid-air, when it was crashing into the Arabian Sea near Dahanu.

Authorities at the civic-run hospital said five bodies have been identified while the process of ascertaining the identity of the sixth one was on. The five bodies identified were of ONGC officials PN Srinivasan, R Saravanan, Jose Antony and Pankaj Garg, and one of the pilots R Ohatkar.

On Sunday, the Coast Guard recovered the Aircraft Voice Data Recorder of the helicopter. Coast Guard officials said a search was on for one missing person and the remaining debris of the copter.

The helicopter crashed off the Mumbai coast minutes after it took off from the Juhu helibase for the state-owned company's oil rig in the Arabian Sea on Saturday morning.

Dr Ramesh Sukhdev, head of forensics at Cooper Hospital, said, "Six bodies have been recovered so far. We are going to conduct DNA tests on all the bodies to ensure the body parts are of the right persons."

"In some bodies, either the hands or the legs are missing. The sixth body yet to be identified is just a pair of legs. Considering the dead bodies are in a fragmented condition, a DNA test will help," said a source from the forensic department of the hospital.

The source added, "The injuries suggest the accident occurred mid-air due to a probable technical fault that may have caused the chopper break into pieces and its blades came in contact with those inside."

According to a former director of Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Kalina, "If the dead bodies of chopper crash victims have sharp cut marks, it can be concluded they may have come in contact with the blades. For the same reason, body parts may go missing. However, this logic has to be medically supported."

An email query sent to Pawan Hans to confirm the same remained unanswered.

Meanwhile, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, a division of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the ONGC's wing for health, safety and rescue will probe into the accident.

In a statement issued on Sunday, ONGC said, "The bodies of our executives have been handed over to respective family members. Two of the families have taken the bodies to their native places for the last rites."