INS Recovers 37 Bodies, Continues Search For 38 Missing After Barge Sank Due To Tauktae, Probe Ordered

The death toll has increased to 37 on Thursday morning and the Indian Navy is searching for 38 missing barge members. Till Now 188 people have been rescued.

Image: PTI

New Delhi: Indian Navy continues to search for at least 38 more people who remain missing after defence ships and offshore vessels of the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) that sunk in the Arabian Sea, off the Mumbai and Gujarat coast during the Cyclone Tauktae.

"188 survivors & 37 Brave Nature Victims recovered so far. INS Kolkata disembarking survivors/BNVs at Mumbai. INS Kochi rejoins SAR efforts IndianNavy ships & aircraft continue to search for the missing crew members", said Indian Navy Spokesperson.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Navy said its ships and aircraft participating in the search and rescue (SAR) operations have so far rescued 186 people, including two from a tugboat, Varapradha.

Indian Navy has found 37 bodies in the Arabian sea till now. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas announced a high-level inquiry into “lapses and gaps” in the system.

An investigation will be conducted to “inquire into the sequence of events leading to the stranding and drifting of these vessels, and subsequent events".It will probe to "see whether warnings by the India Meteorological Department and other statutory authorities were acted upon or not and if the SOP for securing vessels and disaster management was followed or there were some lapses and gaps in the systems leading to such a mishap."

A statement by the ministry said, “Several vessels of ONGC with more than 600 people on board were stranded in offshore areas during Cyclone Tauktae. The stranding, drifting and subsequent events have led to loss of several lives.”

Workmen rescued from the barge P305 narrated their horrifying experience in their quest for survival. Some said they had almost lost hope of making it alive. "It was a horrific situation on the barge. I had not thought I would survive. But I swam for seven to eight hours with the determination to stay alive and was rescued by the Navy," workman Manoj Gite told reporters in Mumbai, PTI reported.

INS Kochi and INS Kolkata which rescued survivors and carried the dead bodies of their teammates sailed out again on Wednesday evening to look for the other members.

After completing SAR operations off the Gujarat coast, INS Talwar has been diverted to join three other ships searching for the missing crew of the barge off the Mumbai coast.