India's largest oil company helicopter crashes with 29 aboard

BOMBAY, India -- A helicopter chartered by one of India's largest oil companies crashed into the Arabian Sea near Bombay with 29 people on board, a company spokeswoman said Monday. Three people have been rescued so far, a coast guard official said.

There were 25 passengers and four crew members aboard the MI-172 helicopter, which was carrying Oil and Natural Gas Co. Ltd. employees when it plunged into the Bombay High, an oil exploration area in the Arabian Sea, company spokeswoman Narayani Mahil said.

Search teams on a company support ship rescued three people and recovered one body, said R.M. Sharma, a coast guard deputy inspector-general.

"But the rough weather and choppy seas due to the monsoon are not conducive to rescue operations," he said.

Mahil did not immediately confirm the rescues.

"We have no details yet, rescue operations are on and we will get more information in a while," Mahil said.

The helicopter took off at 12:15 p.m. from an offshore rig about 22 miles from the coast, and plunged into the sea three minutes later, Mahil said.

The cause of the accident was still not known.

Bombay High produces about half of India's crude oil output.