Navy confirms 37 from barge dead
Barge’s engineer blames loss of lives on punctured life rafts and captain’s attitude
The Indian Navy on Thursday confirmed the death of 37 personnel onboard barge P305, with recoveries of their dead bodies. The barge P305 went adrift and sank in the Arabian Sea off Mumbai coast during Cyclone Tauktae and search operation for at least 36 missing personnel is still in and 188 of the 261 onboard have already been rescued by the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard.
The barge sank 35 nautical miles off Mumbai as Cyclone Tauktae battered India’s west coast. P305 was amongst the four barges that suffered during the cyclone. The other three were Gal Constructor and Support Station-3 — deployed by engineering firm Afcons for its ONGC contract.
“In one of most challenging SAR Ops in aftermath of #CycloneTauktae 325 survivors have been rescued & 37 #BNV recovered off Mumbai & Gujarat Coasts. Vigorous SAR efforts continue for the missing crew of Barge P305 which sank off Mumbai with 05 IN ships, aircraft & helos deployed,” the Indian Navy spokesperson tweeted on Thursday.
The Navy is leading a massive, round-the-clock rescue effort that includes several of its ships, P-81 reconnaissance aircraft and Sea King helicopters, as well as Coast Guard and ONGC vessels, to detect survivors from the sunken barge and other vessels
stranded or affected by the storm.
Indian Navy Commodore Ajay Jha said that the Navy on Thursday morning launched a fresh aerial search and rescue mission, deploying helicopters and Indian Navy ships worked through the night, using searchlights to trace any movement in the dark waters to look for survivors. According to Jha, the search operations would continue for another three days at least.
The Directorate General of Shipping had already ordered an investigation into the deaths. Now the Mumbai Police has also announced a probe into barge P-305 remaining in the area despite storm warnings.
According to barge’s Chief Engineer Rahman Shaikh, everyone on board could have been saved had many of the life rafts not had punctures and the captain taken the cyclone warnings seriously.
On Thursday morning the Coast Guard said another missing tug — Sangeeta, with a crew of 10 — had been located about 10 nautical miles west of Maharashtra’s Tarapur.
Another Navy ship INS Talwar was the ‘On Scene Coordinator’ off Gujarat coast and assisted Support Station 3 (SS-3) and Drill Ship Sagar Bhushan, which were being safely towed back to Mumbai by ONGC support vessels, an official said.