India's navy said on Friday divers had found the bodies of three sailors who were on board a submarine badly damaged by a fire and explosions and that it was unlikely any of 15 other missing crew members would be found alive.
"The state of these bodies and conditions within the submarine leads to firm conclusion that finding any surviving personnel within the submarine is unlikely," the navy said in a statement.
"The damage and destruction within the submarine around the control room area indicates that the feasibility of locating bodies of personnel in the forward part of the submarine is also very remote as the explosion and very high temperatures, which melted steel within, would have incinerated the bodies too."
The sinking of the diesel-powered submarine is the biggest blow for the navy, both in terms of lives and the loss of a vessel, since a frigate was sunk in the 1971 war with Pakistan.
It has turned the spotlight on the navy's ageing submarine fleet even as it spends billions of rupees on aircraft carriers to counter the rising influence of the Chinese navy in the Indian Ocean.
The Sindhurakshak is a Kilo class vessel, which were built in former Soviet and later Russian shipyards for the Indian navy from 1985 to 2000. The navy has 10 of the submarines and four German HDW boats.
A defence source said the navy did not have a deep submergence rescue vehicle that other navies use to save trapped sailors, although in this case the incident occurred while it was docked and not in the deep seas.
The navy said divers couldn't enter the Sindhurakshak for more than 12 hours because of boiling water inside parts of the vessel. Access was "almost impossible due to jammed doors and hatches, distorted ladders, oily and muddy waters".
Only one diver could work at a time initially to clear a path inside the submarine. Divers are trying to reach further inside to find the remaining bodies, the navy said.
Despite putting in their best efforts, rescuers have been finding it difficult to break into the submarine as the heat of the explosion has melted parts of the internal hull deforming the submarine hatches and has prevented access to the compartments. The main hatch was opened last afternoon.
The Navy has also been trying to pump out water from the ship but the operation has met with limited success till now as there has been large scale ingress of sea water into the submarine due to the explosion.
The diesel-electric submarine was commissioned into the Indian Navy in 1997 at a cost of around Rs 400 crore and had gone through a Rs 450-crore extensive upgrade in Russia.
The 2300-tonne Kilo class submarine, powered by a combination of diesel generators and electric batteries, had potent weapons package including the anti-ship 'Club' missiles.
A naval board of inquiry has been ordered into how weapons went off while the vessel was berthed in the high-security Mumbai base.
Friday 16 August 2013
http://zeenews.india.com/news/nation/divers-find-3-bodies-inside-ins-sindhurakshak-15-still-missing_869387.html
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/08/16/uk-india-submarine-bodies-idUKBRE97F04G20130816
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