Beypore: Fishers who went to the sea from the harbour here in Kerala's Kozhikode district got an unusual catch — a part of an helicopter engine.

The hardware was caught in the fishing net while the mechanised boat was around 24 nautical miles off the coast of Munamabam in Kochi.

The boat, named 'Soorat', belongs to Beypore native Usman and was taken out for fishing on October 26. The fishing net was damaged after the engine part that weighed more than 4 tonnes got entangled.

Suspecting it to be a part of a helicopter, the fishermen pulled the component on to the boat but the deck was damaged too in the process. After the boat returned to the harbour, the engine part was unloaded using a crane.

The boat owner has suffered damages to the tune of Rs 1 lakh.

On being alerted about the incident, the Coast Guard and the police arrived and carried out an inspection.

The preliminary inference is that it is the rotor part of the helicopter. The Coast Guard has sent a communication to the Kochi Navy headquarters to confirm this.

The engine part is currently in the custody of the police.

In March 2021, the boat ‘Alfas’ had also found the engine part of a helicopter around 12 nautical miles off the coast of Elathur in Kozhikode district. During the inspection carried out by the Navy officers then, it was confirmed to be part of a ‘Kamov’ helicopter that had crashed into the sea. The engine part was taken to Kochi.

In September 1984, a helicopter, that took off from the 'INS Rana', had crashed off the Kozhikode coast. The pilot and co-pilot of the crashed helicopter had gone missing.

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