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10 accidents in 7 months: Sinking Navy?
The Indian Navy was on Wednesday hit by yet another mishap as smoke engulfed Russian-made submarine INS Sindhuratna off the Mumbai coast.
According to reports, INS Sindhuratna was involved in an exercise along the Mumbai harbour when a leakage in the battery compartment of the submarine occurred, resulting in seven naval personnel suffering suffocation.
Close to 80 sailors were on board the Sindhuratna when the incident took place early on Wednesday.
With this being the 10 such incident involving naval vessels since August 2013, heads were bound to roll. The first to go was Navy chief Admiral DK Joshi
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INS Airavat (February 2014)
Amphibious ship INS Airavat suffered damages while returning back to the harbour in February.
The Shardul-class amphibious warship suffered minor damages when its propellers hit the ground while returning to the harbour.
Investigation has hinted that it was the crew's miscalculation that caused the ship to touch the bottom, which is when the propeller grazed against an object, suffering damage.
Commander JPS Virk was relieved of the command of the ship
The ship, indigenously built at Kolkata-based Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers, entered service just five years ago in 2009, and has the capacity to transport troops and battletanks for amphibious assaults.
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INS Sindhughosh (January 2014)
In January 2014, INS Sindhughosh -- one of the most advanced submarines that the Indian Navy operates -- ran aground at the Naval harbour in Mumbai.
The vessel is learnt to have remained in the position for four hours and was tugged into its slot on the harbour in high tide. At the time of the incident, it was fully armed, carrying its entire compliment of 70 personnel, all of whom were safe.
The submarine, with a top speed of 18 nautical miles per hour and a crew of 53, hit headlines in 2008 as well when it had a 'brush' with merchant ship MV Leeds in the north Arabian sea, suffering damage
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INS Vipul (January 2014)
INS Vipul, a member of the elite 22nd Killer Missile Vessel Squadron, was detected with a hole in its pillar compartment which forced the ship back into the harbour while it was on an operational deployment.
INS Vipul was on operational patrol when, close to 70 nautical miles off Mumbai, ingress of water was detected owing to a hole in its pillar compartment.
Pillar compartment is located close to the rear of the ship, described as stern. Pillar compartment is the location from which a ship's underwater components connect to the ones aboard and there are multiple openings there, as a result.
Ironically, the vessel had only recently undegone Normal Refit inside the Mumbai Naval Dockyard
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INS Betwa (January 2014)
The Sound Navigation and Ranging (SONAR) system of warship INS Betwa was detected with hairline fracture in its dome that resulted in ingress of sea water into the system.
After the leak was detected in the warship's critical system, it was brought to a dry-dock for inspection.
The damage on the Brahmaputra-class guided missile frigate was noticed when it entered the Mumbai harbour after returning apparently from anti-piracy operations.
The Brahmaputra class of ships have been designed and built in India. Inducted into the navy on April 14, 2000, INS Betwa has a length of 126m and displaces 3850 tons of water.
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INS Tarkash (December 2013)
INS Tarkash -- a Talwar-class frigate which has conducted several overseas missions -- hit the jetty while berthing at the Mumbai naval base.
Its hull was badly damaged.
INS Tarkash, the second of the three stealth Frigates constructed at Yantar Shipyard, Kaliningrad Russia, was commissioned and inducted into the Indian Navy on November 9, 2012
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INS Talwar (December 2013)
Navy's frontline frigate INS Talwar collided with a fishing trawler near Ratnagiri coast in Maharashtra.
Navy sources said the mishap took place as the fishing trawler was operating without lights and could not be seen in the dark.
The fishing vessel suffered extensive damage and sunk right on the spot.
All the persons in the trawler were pulled out by INS Talwar and dropped on the shore after being provided required medical attention
A probe held INS Talwar’s skipper Captain Gopi Suri responsible for the lack of adequate supervision and noncompliance with naval procedure. He was relieved of the command of the Russia-built stealth frigate worth Rs 1,500 crore.
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INS Konkan (December 2013)
INS Konkan, a mine sweeper under the Eastern Naval Command, suffered major damage after it caught fire at the Naval Dockyard in Visakhapatnam.
The Pondicherry class M-72 ship was undergoing repairs at the time of the fire.
The fire incident has come a day after Navy Chief Admiral D K Joshi asserted that Navy's record was ‘not all that bad’ in terms of accidents when compared to other navies in the world.
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INS Viraat (September 2013)
In September last year, a fire was reported in aircraft carrier INS Viraat’s air conditioning system
The aircraft carrier of the country has completed 26 years of its service with the Indian Navy.
The ship underwent last major modernisation and life enhancement refit in 2008-09, which gave it a life extension of a few more years.
INS Viraat is also one of the longest serving aircraft carrier in the history of naval operations anywhere in the world.
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INS Sindhurakshak (August 2013)
The blast and fire on INS Sindhurakshak -- a kilo class submarine that had undergone a major refit at Russia’s Zvezdochka shipyard -- was Indian Navy’s worst-ever tragedy.
All 18 sailors on board the submarine, which exploded and sank, were killed.
The submarine sank after an explosion in its torpedo section.
Efforts are on to salvage the submarine, which is still nose down in water. The defence ministry has signed a contract with the Indian arm of US firm Resolve Salvage and Fire Limited.
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