Fire in Submarine During Sea Acceptance Trials

Two Naval Officers Killed in INS Sindhuratna Incident

An IMR Report

Smoke was noticed in a section of Submarine INS Sindhuratna in the early hours of 26 February while it was around 100 km west of Mumbai. Deputy Electrical Officer Lt Commander Kapish Muwal and Watch Keeping Officer Lt Manoranjan Kumar, who went missing after the accident, were later found dead. Seven sailors, who had fainted due to inhaling of smoke, were airlifted using naval helicopters from mid-sea to the Mumbai-based naval hospital INS Asvini. The submarine surfaced immediately after the accident and the entire crew came out.

Officials said the fire was in the third compartment of the 75m-long submarine. The 3,076-tonne, Kilo-Class vessel has six compartments. The compartment where smoke was seen was locked lest the fire should engulf the entire vessel. INS Sindhuratna surfaced immediately after the accident and the Captain did a head count - around 70 officers and men were on board.

The submarine had just been refitted in India and was being tested out at sea for acceptance trials. It was not carrying any weapons or missiles.

INS Sindhuratna was at sea off Mumbai for routine training and workup (inspection) in the early hours of 26 February, when smoke was reported in the sailors' accommodation, in compartment number three, by the submarine, the Navy said in a press release.  

Western Command's Commodore Commanding Submarine (COMCOS) Commodore S.R. Kapoor was on board the vessel carrying out an inspection before it was to be cleared for operational duties.   

A Seaking helicopter and other warships in the area were sent for the rescue . "We immediately activated our emergency fire-fighting exercise and seven personnel who had inhaled smoke were airlifted to a hospital. Two officials are unaccounted for. They might have been left in the cabin or at some other place as various cabins and compartments are isolated as part of the emergency measures," the officers said.   

The injured were admitted to the naval hospital INS Ashwini after they were airlifted by Seaking multirole helicopters in multiple sorties.

As many as 70-odd officers and men were on board at the time of the mishap but no weapon systems were fitted on it. The submarine, which did not suffer much damage, was underwater when the mishap occurred and was later brought to the surface.

Sindhuratna had recently undergone a refit in Mumbai and was handed over to Navy in December. It was to undergo two exercises, one at harbour and another at sea, before it was to be given operational clearance.

It was at 'Task 2 (exercise at sea)' when the mishap occurred. An inquiry was ordered to establish the cause of the incident.          

A preliminary inquiry into the mishap aboard the INS Sindhuratna revealed that fire in some cables led to the smoke in the third compartment. Earlier it was said that the smoke was caused by faulty batteries. Reportedly, the probe mentions a deviation from standard operating procedure.

The Navy is yet to get to the bottom of the INS Sindhurakshak tragedy. The navy has only recently signed a Rs 240-crore contract with a US-based company for the salvage of the sunk vessel.

Defense analysts said submarine crew members in the Indian navy were not getting enough training on one type of vessel before moving to another, increasing risks that minor incidents could have fatal consequences. Handling a ship comes with experience and young officers were not getting the time needed on smaller vessels before moving onto bigger ones, said Bharat Karnad, a senior fellow of national security studies at the Centre for Policy Research.

India has been operating submarines for decades, their numbers are dwindling with delays in procurement since the turn of the century. Older submarines were being retired without being replaced with new ones. The INS Sindhuratna, a Soviet-built Kilo class vessel, was commissioned in 1988. Most of the country's fleet of more than a dozen submarines is in urgent need of modernization.

Accident onboard INS Kolkata

Commander Kuntal Wadhwa died after he tripped, fell and inhaled carbon monoxide being discharged by the malfunctioning fire control system on board a Kolkata-class destroyer undergoing trials at the Mumbai Port Trust, weeks before it joined the naval fleet. The fire suppression systems on board the Kolkata warship, currently designated Yard 701, malfunctioned during trials. The officer inhaled a large amount of carbon dioxide during the malfunction, leading to his death. Two personnel of the Mazgaon Docks Limited (MDL), where the ship has been constructed, were also affected and were hospitalised.

An official statement released by MDL said the ship was undergoing machinery trials in Mumbai Port Trust (and) had a malfunction in its carbon dioxide unit, leading to gas leakage. The officer was also possibly hit by the valve of the fire control systems that burst open.

The accident was a major setback for the Navy as the Kolkata-class destroyer, called P 15A, was to be inducted in April as the most advanced, indigenous warship in its fleet. Already running four years behind schedule, the Kolkata is the first of its class and is to be followed by the Chennai and the Kochi which are under construction as part of a Rs 15,000-crore project. Three more advanced P 15B destroyers have been planned thereafter.

The accident is likely to delay its induction as the Navy will now conduct a comprehensive safety review of the vessel before accepting it for duty.

MDL functions under the purview of the ministry of defence (MoD) and many feel it is high time the defence minister owns moral responsibility for the incidents. In fact, this sentiment among many defence-watchers and ex-servicemen was strengthened following the resignation Admiral DK Joshi, who owned moral responsibility for the spate of incidents involving warships in the past six months.