Mumbai: A Bell helicopter belonging to Great Eastern Shipping Company Ltd, (GESCO) was on September 11 grounded on a rig at "Tapti" gas fields in Western offshore in Gulf of Cambay, off Gujarat coast.

There were no passengers in the helicopter, which was taking off from the rig at 5.00 pm (IST), but had to be grounded due to the technical snag.

"The rotor touched the tail boom (rear rotor) of the chopper resulting in its grounding at the rig," an airport official said.

A technical team of the director general of civil aviation would visit the rig on September 12 and carry out an inspection and assess the "damage to the boom".

Panna-Mukta-Tapti oil and gas fields are owned by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Reliance Industries Ltd and British Gas Exploration and Production India Ltd.

PTI