Visakhapatnam: One sailor died and four others went missing after a Torpedo Recovery Vessel (TRV) of the Indian Navy A 72 sunk off Visakhapatnam coast on Thursday night.
The vessel was on a routine mission to recover practice torpedoes fired by fleet ships during a routine exercise, when it experienced flooding in one of the ballast compartments.
At the time of incident, there were 28 personnel on board.
After receiving a distress call from the sinking vessel, several naval ships were pressed into action for rescue operation.
One sailor lost his life after the rescue operation and four personnel are still reported missing. 23 personnel have been rescued safely by the search and the rescue ships dispatched to the area.
TRV is an auxiliary vessel which is used to recover practice torpedoes fired by fleet ships and submarines. The ship is 23 meters long and 6.5 meters at the beam. The ship was built by Goa Shipyard Ltd in 1983 and has served the Indian navy for the last 31 years.
Read: Timeline of accidents involving naval vessels and submarines since 2013
While the Astravahini-class TRV is supposed to be manned by a 13 member crew, the sunk vessel had 28 on board.
While confirming the incident Andhra Pradesh additional DGP RP Thakur said, “A naval sailor is reported dead as the vessel sunk and four are missing and feared dead. Remaining members on board are safe as they were rescued by other naval teams who rushed to spot in rescue ships”.
The TRV 72, which was used for torpedo recovery, sank in depth of about 370 meters. At that point of time the ship was about 35 nautical miles south off Visakhapatnam coast and 28 nautical miles from the closest point of the coast.
This ship was deployed off Visakhapatnam for routine torpedo recovery mission. On successful completion, the vessel was on return passage and was scheduled to enter the Visakhapatnam harbour.
While on its return mission the ship reported flooding in the steering gear compartment. Naval ships in vicinity were immediately diverted to render assistance. Additionally Dornier and Boeing P8I aircraft were also being deployed.
A seaking 42 c helicopter with night vision capability has been deployed along with additional ships to assist in the search and rescue operation for the missing sailors.
