Even as over 24 hours have passed since they entered the sunken INS Sindhurakshak, the Navy divers had till Thursday night not succeeded in “sighting or recovering” the 18 trapped naval personnel who were feared dead after the missile-laden submarine met a watery grave in the dockyard here early on Wednesday. With the passage of time, the chances of their survival appear very dim.
late on Thursday night, the Indian Navy released the names of 18 of its personnel who were on duty inside INS Sindhurakshak at the time of disaster. They included three officers: Nikhilesh Pal, Alok Kumar and P Venkita Raj, all lt Commander. The 15 sailors were identified as Sanjeev Kumar, KC Upadhyay, Timothy Sinha, Kewal Singh, Sunil Kumar, Dasari Prasad, liju lawrence, Rajesh Tootika, Amit K Singh, Atul Sharma, Vikas E, Naruttam Deuri, Malay Haldar, Vishnu V and Seetaram Badapalli.
In what appears like an exhaustingly long-haul underwater mission that is being hampered by “poor-visibility” and “restricted spaces” inside the sunken submarine, the Navy divers opened the main hatch and entered INS Sindhurakshak late on Wednesday and have since then been continuing the search operation round-the-clock. “The trapped personnel have not yet been sighted or recovered,” a Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesperson said. “Efforts continue round the clock to ascertain the status of the 18 trapped personnel who were inside the submarine at the time of the incident,” an MoD release said.
“The diving efforts are hampered by poor visibility inside submarine (which is filled with water), extremely restricted spaces and displacement of most equipment from their original location. The heat of the explosion has melted parts of the internal hull deforming the submarine hatches and preventing access to compartments,” the release added.
Informed MoD sources said the divers used a blow torch to cut the exit (main) hatch of the sunken submarine which is sitting on the sea bed. Owing to heavy mud presence and shallowness of depth, the visibility is extremely poor there.
“Heavy duty pumps are being used to pump out the water from the submarine. There has been large scale ingress of sea water into the submarine due to the explosion,” the spokesperson.
It will take some more time before the authorities can establish the cause of the unprecedented disaster.Once the water is pumped out from it, the sunken submarine will float to its surface position, thus facilitating access and detailed examination of its compartments so as to ascertain the remains of the ordinance on board the vessel and collect evidence.
Apart from having Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief (Western Naval Command-WNC), the Board of Inquiry (BoI) --- appointed by the Navy to go into the circumstances leading to the mishap --- comprises among other senior officials like a Naval armament expert, submarine commander, an electrical officer, engineering officer and damage control specialist.
The enquiry will get underway after the sunken submarine is brought to the surface and all its compartments become accessible.The forensics, arson and explosive experts will be the first investigators to move into the submarine after it is dried out in the docks; they will map out the epi-centre of the fire and the first spark off-point.
After taking stock of the preliminary reports and sparse eye-witness accounts, the authorities and naval experts have prima facie dismissed the sabotage angle as the submarine was in her full outfit, which in lay man terms meant that ingredients like explosives, ammo, fuel, oxygen bottles, battery kits that often exhume hydrogen were all present inside the vessel.
On his part, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral DK Joshi has dismissed the theory that the battery charging process could have triggered the twin major explosions which in turn resulted in a massive fire on board INS Sindhurakshak.