news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

【Text/Observer.com Bobcat】

According to India's New Delhi Television (NDTV), a naval warship was severely damaged after a fire and capsized, and some crew members were missing.

The report quoted sources from the Indian Navy as saying that a fire broke out on the Brahmaputra (hull number F31), a multi-purpose frigate that was being renovated at the Mumbai Naval Dockyard, on Sunday evening (July 21), adding that the ship capsized.

The Brahmaputra was on fire on Sunday evening.

The Indian Navy said in a statement that firefighters from the Mumbai Naval Dockyard and other ships brought the fire under control on Monday morning (22nd) and took follow-up measures including cleaning and inspection, and assessed the residual risk of the fire. However, in the afternoon of the same day, the "Brahmaputra" began to tilt to the port side. However, despite "making every effort", the warship was unable to right itself and continued to tilt until it capsized in the water.

By the afternoon of the 22nd, the Brahmaputra had capsized in the water.

The Indian Navy said that most of the crew members on board have been found, but one junior sailor is still missing. The search and rescue is still ongoing. The Indian Navy has also ordered an investigation into the accident.

The Brahmaputra is the first ship of the Indian Navy's Brahmaputra-class multi-purpose missile frigate. The ship is 126.4 meters long, 14.5 meters wide, and has a draft of 4.5 meters. It is powered by two Bhopal steam turbines produced by Bharat Heavy Electricals, with a standard displacement of 3,600 tons. There are three ships of this class, all built at the Garden Rich Shipyard in Kolkata, and all named after rivers, namely F31 Brahmaputra, F39 Betwa, and F37 Beas. The keel of the Brahmaputra was laid in 1989, it was launched on January 26, 1994, and completed and commissioned on April 14, 2004.

Coincidentally, this is not the first time that the Brahmaputra has capsized: On December 5, 2016, the second ship of the same class, the Betwa, also slipped from the support pier at the bottom of the dock and capsized while undergoing renovation at the Mumbai Naval Dockyard. The mast was also damaged, and two crew members were killed and 15 were injured. Judging from the photos of the accident at the time, the left-side capsizing posture of the Betwa was almost exactly the same as that of the Brahmaputra this time, except that it was in the dock.

On December 5, 2016, the Betwa slipped off the support pier in the dock of the Mumbai Naval Dockyard and turned over on its side in the dock.

On December 22, 2016, satellites captured the overturned frigate Betwa in the dock.

To this end, the Indian Navy spent $3 million to sign a contract with an American salvage company, and the "Betwa" was raised and righted on February 22, 2017. In August 2019, the Indian military court found that three officers, including a colonel and two lieutenant colonels, had neglected their duties in the accident and sentenced them to have their service qualifications deducted by four to six months.

This article is an exclusive article of Observer.com and may not be reproduced without authorization.