Indian Navy helicopter rescues 4 stuck on grounded tugboat in Mumbai

Four crew members of a tugboat, Sonika, who were stranded at sea off Mumbai last night, were rescued by an Indian Navy SeaKing C helicopter

The rescue operation

Four crew members of a tugboat, Sonika, who were stranded at sea off Mumbai last night, were rescued by an Indian Navy SeaKing C helicopter.

A distress call was received at the Mumbai Main Police Control Room from the tugboat. The boat, with four men onboard, had run aground on rocks in the waters off Raj Bhavan during low tide and had begun to flood. The site is in the general area around where the Shivaji statue is planned to be built.

The rescued tugboat crew

A police launch from Mahim reached the site by 9.15 pm but could not approach the boat as there were rocks around the shallow waters. The Indian Navy was approached for help and the Joint Operations Centre, too, was contacted by the police.

A Navy spokesperson said, "Around 11.20 pm, a naval SeaKing C helicopter, with divers onboard, was launched from the Naval Air Station Shikra. The helicopter was able to extricate all four stranded men and return to base by 11.45 pm. The rescued men were provided a medical check-up on arrival. The crew is safe and no injury was reported."

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