New Delhi, February 3
The Navy has cracked the whip for committing errors at sea and has removed the Commander of INS Airavat from command after one of the propellers of the warship got damaged when it travelled down a wrong alignment near the harbour at Vishakhapatnam.

Naval warship INS Airavat, an amphibious one and used to land troops close to the shore, suffered damage to its propellers while entering a harbour on January 30.

The warship, an amphibious one and used to land troops close to the shore, suffered damage to its propellers while entering the harbour on January 30. Although the ship did not suffer any major damage, but it is a serious issue for the Navy as the incident indicates at a navigational error on board the 5650-tonne warship that was commissioned in 2009. Ship Commander JPS Virk has been removed pending a board of inquiry, Navy sources confirmed.

It is likely that when the ship strayed away from the main channel, it hit something, a rock or earth. All entry and exit channels at the harbour are surveyed and digital maps are available to the commanders. The Ministry of Defence had asked the Navy for a report on the incident.

Notably, two other ship commanders were removed from command prematurely after separate incidents to their ships in December last and January this year. Commander Gopal Suri was removed from INS Talwar while Commander Deepak Bisht was removed from IS Betwa. Both are doing staff postings at the Western Naval Command headquarters in Mumbai.

The INS Talwar had rammed into a fishing boat off Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, sinking the boat and throwing out 27 fishermen, who were rescued by the warship crew and later taken ashore. The fishing boat was not lit during the night hence was not visible and an FIR was registered against it for breaking maritime rules.

The INS Betwa, returned to the Mumbai dockyard on January 4, had reported ingress of salt water into the outer casing of its Sonar located at the bottom of the ship. The ship was brought to dry dock and a vertical fracture was found on its dome. It was repaired and is back to sailing on an operational deployment, but its Commander Deepak Bisht was removed.

In November last year, Defence Minister AK Antony while addressing the Naval Commanders said: "It must be ensured that safety mechanisms are topmost priority and Standard Operating Procedures (SoP) are adhered to strictly and without exception".

He had underscored the responsibility of the force to train, operate and maintain assets and capabilities built assiduously so that "resources are not frittered away".