Naval vessel sinks off Vizag coast; 1 dead

VISAKHAPATNAM: One sailor was killed and four others went missing in yet another incident of an Indian Navy's torpedo recovery vessel (TRV) sinking off the coast of Visakhapatnam at around 8 pm on Thursday.

According to a Naval official, the vessel was on a routine mission to recover practice torpedoes fired by fleet ships when she experienced flooding in one of her compartments. Officials claimed that at the time of the accident, there were 28 personnel on board.

'One sailor lost his life during the rescue operation and four personnel are reported missing. Twentythree personnel have been rescued safely by the search and rescue ships dispatched to the area,' Navy spokesperson Captain DK Sharma said.

Navy officials said the flooding happened when the vessel was on its way back after collecting the 'dummy' torpedo that was used in the exercise. The vessel sank at a depth of 370 metres at 7.30 pm at a distance of 65 km south of Visakhapatnam coast.

'On successful completion of its mission, the ship was on return passage to Visakhapatnam when flooding was reported in the steering gear compartment at 6.30 pm. Naval ships in the vicinity were immediately alerted to render assistance and additional support was deployed using Dornier and Boeing P81 aircraft,' Navy officials said.

TRV is an auxiliary vessel which is used to recover practice torpedoes fired by fleet ships and submarines.

While efforts were on to locate the sunken ship, a board of inquiry has been constituted to investigate the cause of the incident.

This particular ship was built by Goa Shipyard Limited in 1983 and has served the Navy for the last 31 years.

The accident is one of the many that the Navy has witnessed over the last couple of years. It may be recalled 1,350-tonne missile corvette INS Kora suffered minor damage after it was scraped by a container merchant vessel collided with it 300 nautical miles off Visakhapatnam on October 31. The Navy had then ordered a board of inquiry into the circumstances that led to the mishap.

Submarine INS Sindhurakshak sank at the Mumbai Naval dockyard on August 14 last year, killing three officers and 15 sailors. In fact, Admiral RK Dhowan took over as the Chief of the Naval Staff on April 17 this year, after his predecessor DK Joshi quit following a series of accidents. Admiral Joshi resigned after a fire on the INS Sindhuratna, which left two officers dead.