KOCHI/THRISSUR: The helicopter crash off the Mumbai coast on Saturday claimed the lives of three ONGC officials hailing from Kerala. One of them, Jose Antony, 54, deputy general manager, belonged to Kothamangalam, Ernakulam district, and the two others, V.K. Bindu Lal Babu, 49, deputy general manager, to Chalakkudy, and P.N. Sreenivasan, 59, staffer, to Punkunnam, both in Thrissur district.
A pall of gloom descended on the houses of their relatives as the news of their death trickled in on Saturday.
Jose Antony has four brothers and two sisters but only one brother, Paul Antony, is settled in his native place. Jose is the fourth son of the late P.V. Antony and Pennemma Antony of Perumballichira house at Meenappady, Kothamangalam.
After completing his engineering degree, he joined the ONGC as a junior engineer in Assam and worked in Andhra Pradesh, before shifting to Mumbai over 10 years ago. He was elevated to deputy general manager two years ago. His wife is Rani. They have two daughters, Reshmitha Jose and Rimitha Jose.
“We got a call from Rani saying that the chopper carrying Jose and his six colleagues had gone missing in Maharashtra," said a relative.
Jose had come to Kothamangalam with family in December for Christmas and attended a wedding in Bengaluru. He planned to come again during Easter in April.
Bindu Lal Babu's ancestral house is at Chenathunadu near Chalakudy. He is the fourth child of the late Valiyaparambil Kuttappan who is a retired headmaster of Chalakudy Government High School. Babu's mother is the late Narayaniamma, who was a school teacher.
Babu had high academic achievements during his school and college days. He had shifted to Mumbai with his wife Dr Shiny two decades ago.
He attended Chalakudy East School and did Plus-Two in Kazhakoottam Sanik School. He secured his degree in Marine Engineering from Dhanbad, Jharkhand, and joined the ONGC.
Babu's children are Vibisha, a Plus-Two student, and Susant, who studies in third standard.
He had come to his ancestral home in August 2015 to settle matters regarding partition, his relatives said.
P.N. Sreenivasan is the son of Narayanan Ezhuthachan and the late Ambujakshi of Pookkattuparambil family. His ancestral house is in MG Nagar, Punkunnam, Thrissur. His presently settled in Mumbai.
He is survived by wife Jayasree, son Arjun Kiran, a bank employee, and daughter Iswarya, an MBA student. Sreenivasan was in Thrissur to attend the wedding of his niece in October last year.
