Indian Naval officer Abhilash Tomy, badly injured while participating in the Golden Globe Race, "rolling excessively," in the Indian Ocean, has been located and expected to be rescued by a French vessel Monday, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and the Navy said Sunday.
Commander Tomy, whose vessel was located by an Indian Navy aircraft earlier, shall be picked up in the next 16 hours by French vessel Osiris, Sitharaman said in a tweet at 7 pm.
The Minister also said she had spoken to vice-chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Ajit Kumar P regarding the condition of the injured navy officer.
"...The Rescue Mission is being coordinated with the Australian Navy. The injured officer shall be picked up in the next 16 hrs by a French vessel Osiris," Sitharaman said.
A defence spokesman said Tomy would to be brought on board Australian Naval ship HMAS Ballarat, which has already left Perth to rescue him. Indian Naval Defence Attache' in Australia has been camping in the regional Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) monitoring the rescue mission, he said.
Earlier in the day, the spokesman said all efforts were being made to rescue Commander Tomy who had suffered a back injury Friday after his yacht was hit by a vicious storm with 14-metre-high waves mid-way across south Indian Ocean. "INS Satpura and INS Jyoti are heading at top speed to reach Tomy", the spokesman said.
However, INS Satpura was expected to reach the location only by Friday. He said the situation was being monitored at Naval Headquarters in New Delhi, as well as by the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre at Melbourne, Australia. The Indian Navy's P8I aircraft, which flew from Mauritius in the early hours Sunday, has located the "mast broken boat rolling excessively", he said. "Commander Tomy responded by ping on EPIRB as the aircraft was flying over him," the spokesman said here.