At the time of the incident, the Indian Coast Guard said the Greatship Rohini vessel had a crew of 18. As well as the Dornier aircraft, the coast guard ships Samarth and Samudra Praheri were sent to the scene.

The ship's fire was extinguished and 15 of the 18 workers were rescued and search operations for the remaining three workers were launched.

Nevertheless, India's Hindustan Times newspaper announced on Monday that the three missing crew members were found dead on the vessel on Sunday morning in a search operation carried out jointly by 19 individuals.

Amitabh Kumar, the director general of shipping, said that an investigation had been ordered into the cause of the incident.

According to the Hindustan Times, when the fire broke out, the vessel was 92 nautical miles off the Mumbai coast, near ONGC's Mumbai High NQO platform.

The Indian newspaper said the fire in the engine room had begun. One officer, who works as an electro-technological officer, named as Gurbeender Singh, suffered burn injuries and was evacuated in a chopper and transferred to a hospital. He's out of danger back in the hospital recovering.

Using the OSV Anjali, the Greatship Rohini was then towed away from the stage. The 2010-built vessel is owned by the Greatship Group, based in Mumbai.

Maritime Business World