Indian Navy Ship Sinks, At Least 1 Dead

By The Maritime Executive 11-06-2014 02:52:00

One crewmember has died and four others have been reported missing after a Torpedo Recovery Vessel belonging to India’s Navy sank off the coast of Visakhapatnam in southeast India on Thursday evening (local time).

23 other crewmen onboard were rescued by Search-and-Rescue (SAR) ships dispatched to the incident area. Additional ships and aircraft are involved in an ongoing SAR mission.

The sunken naval vessel was on a routine mission to recover practice torpedoes fired by fleet ships during an exercise. It started sinking after there was flooding in one of its compartments, according to a Navy statement.

The Torpedo Recovery Vessel is an auxiliary vessel; the ship was built by Goa Shipyard Limited in 1983.

The accident is one in a series of fatal incidents that the Indian Navy has witnessed over the last year.