Navy submarine hit by vessel off Goa, 2 fishermen missing
One of Indian Navy’s latest submarines was hit by a fishing boat about 120 km north west of Goa.
Two of 13 fishermen on the boat are missing a search operation is going on, the Indian Navy said on Friday adding the accident happened last night.
The Navy has ordered an investigation to ascertain the cause of the accident.
As per sources, the submarine was one of the latest Scorpene class vessels made by Mazagon Docks Shipbuilders in collaboration with French company, the Navl group. The submarine has not been damaged to that extent that its operations would be impacted. It is still sailing at sea.
At the time of accident, the submarine was just below the surface of the water and only its periscope was above the surface — possibly to run an onboard engine and that would need fresh air to operate.
In Naval parlance, this is called ‘periscope depth’ operations. The fishing boat named ‘Marthoma’ collided with the submarine. It is still to be found if the fishing vessel had the tracking device called the automated identification system (AIS).
Having an AIS is mandatory for boats of length of 20 meters or more. This was ordered after the 26/11 terror attacks on Mumbai. The AIS allows the Navy to track any vessel. Six ships and aircraft were launched to rescue the fishermen. Eleven of them were rescued.
