Injured naval officer found safe

Tomy had suffered a back injury after his yacht was hit by a storm in Indian Ocean

An Indian Navy aircraft has located the vessel of Indian Naval officer Abhilash Tomy, who was badly injured while participating in the Golden Globe Race, “rolling excessively” in the south Indian Ocean, a Defence spokesman said Sunday.

Tomy suffered a back injury on Friday after his yacht was hit by a vicious storm with 14-metre-high waves, midway across the south Indian Ocean. The Indian Navy’s P8I aircraft, which flew from Mauritius in the early hours on 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. EPIRB or Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon is a device which alerts rescue services in case of an accident at sea.

He said heavy rains have been reported in the area.

The aircraft would fly back after three to four hours and Tomy can only be rescued by naval ships, he said.

Tomy had, on Sunday, managed to get in touch with race organisers in France through messages and had requested a stretcher as he could not move on his own. He was representing India in the Golden Globe Race 2018 (GGR) on an indigenously-built sailing vessel, SV Thuraya.

Tomy, who became the first Indian to have circumnavigated the globe in 2013, is the only Indian participating in the race that involves a gruelling 48,280-km solo circumnavigation of the globe.

His vessel is in the south Indian Ocean, about 1,900 nautical miles from Perth, Australia.

The vessel was dismasted in extremely rough weather and sea conditions, with wind speeds of 130 km/h.

He was in third position in the race and has sailed over 10,500 nautical miles in the last 84 days, since the race started on July 1.