List of Indian Naval accidents

This is a list of accidents that have taken place in the Indian Navy. The list may be incomplete for years before 2000.

An article in India Today reports that since 1990, the Indian Navy has lost one warship in peacetime every five years. Since 2004, it has lost one naval combatant every two years. While peacetime losses of warships are not uncommon (since the World War II, the US Navy has lost 16 warships in accidents; Russia's nuclear submarine Kursk sank in August 2000 after a faulty torpedo exploded during a training exercise), the magazine mentioned that few global navies have such a dubious record.^[1] According to the Times of India, while some of accidents reported since August 2013 were serious, many of them were trivial incidents exaggerated in public.^[2]

These accidents have been attributed to ageing ships in need of maintenance, delayed acquisitions by the Ministry of Defence, and human error.^[1] However naval commentators also argue that as India's large navy of 160 ships clocks around 12,000 ship-days at sea every year, in varied waters and weather, some incidents are inevitable.^[3][4] Captains of erring ships are dismissed from their command following an enquiry.^[5][6] The accident on board INS Sindhuratna (S59) led to the resignation of the then Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) Admiral D K Joshi on 26 February 2014, who owned moral responsibility.^[7]

2000 - 2010

• December 2005: INS Trishul (F43), a Talwar-class frigate, collided with a commercial vessel, Ambuja Laxmi, outside the Mumbai harbor, while returning from a training mission. These class of ships use stealth technologies and a special hull design to ensure a reduced radar cross section. Radar systems installed by the port authorities and those on board the Ambuja Laxmi were unable to detect INS Trishul and prevent the side on collision. No casualties were reported.^[8][9]

• April 2006: INS Prahar (K98), Veer class corvette, sank after colliding with the MV Rajiv Gandhi vessel about 20 nautical miles away from the Goa coast. No casualties were reported. The commanding officer of the ship, Lieutenant Commander Yogesh Tripathi was found guilty of negligence by an Indian Navy court-martial and dismissed from service.^[10]

• September 2006: INS Dunagiri (F36), Nilgiri class frigate, collided with a Shipping Corporation of India merchant vessel, the MV Kiti, off the coast of Mumbai. There were no casualties, but the Dunagiri suffered damage and required extensive repairs.^[11][12]

• January 2008: INS Sindhughosh (S55), a Kilo-class submarine, collided with a foreign merchant vessel MV Leeds Castle while trying to surface in waters north of Mumbai.^[9] The submarine was taking part in fleet-level war games, when the accident occurred. The Navy termed it a minor incident with no casualties reported.

• August 2009: A collision of the missile corvette INS Kuthar (P46) with destroyer INS Ranvir (D54) in the Bay of Bengal was traced to a rudder failure, compounded by a flawed maneuver.^[1]

2010 - present

• In 2010, three crew men on destroyer INS Mumbai (D62) were instantly killed when an AK-630 Close-in weapon system went off as safety drills were not followed.^[1]

• January 2011: INS Vindhyagiri (F42), a Nilgiri-class frigate, capsized after a collision with a Cyprus-flagged merchant vessel MV Nordlake near the Sunk Rock light house, following which a major fire broke out in the ship's engine and boiler room. Everyone on board was evacuated as soon as the fire broke out and hence there were no casualties.^[13] INS Vindhyagiri was later decommissioned.^[14]

• August 2013: Blasts ripped through the torpedo compartment of the INS Sindhurakshak (S63) while it was berthed at the naval dockyard off the Mumbai coast. Fifteen Sailors and three officers were killed.^[15] Other sources state that a small explosion occurred around midnight which then triggered the two larger explosions.^[16] The disaster was thought to be the Indian navy's worst since the sinking of the frigate INS Khukri by a Pakistani submarine during the 1971 war.^[17]

• December 2013: INS Konkan (M72), a Pondicherry-class minesweeper under the Eastern Naval Command, caught fire at the naval dockyard at Visakhapatnam while undergoing repairs. The fire engulfed much of the ship's interior before it was put off. No casualties were reported.^[18]

• December 2013: In the second incident in the same month, INS Talwar (F40), the lead ship of the Talwar class frigate of the Indian Navy, collided with a fishing trawler injuring four of the 27 people on board the trawler and sinking it. The fishing trawler was operating without lights.^[19] The captain of the ship was subsequently stripped of command.^[20]

• December 2013: In the third incident in the same month, INS Tarkash (F50), again a Talwar class frigate, suffered damage to its hull when it hit the jetty while docking at the Mumbai naval base. The navy ordered a board of inquiry.^[21]

• January 2014: INS Betwa (F39), an indigenously built Brahmaputra class guided missile frigate, ran aground and collided with an unidentified object while approaching the Mumbai naval base. The sonar system of the frigate was cracked, leading to faulty readings and an ingress of saltwater into sensitive equipment.^[22]

• January 2014: In the second incident in the same month, INS Vipul (K46), a veer class corvette of the elite 22nd Killer Missile Vessel Squadron, was detected with a hole in its pillar compartment which forced the ship back into the harbor while it was on an operational deployment.^[23]

• February 2014: On 3 February, INS Airavat (L24), a Shardul class amphibious warfare vessel, ran aground while returning to its home base at Visakhapatnam, causing slight damage to its propellers. Following the incident, its commanding officer, Captain JPS Virk, was relieved of command pending the findings of a Board of Inquiry.^[24]

• February 2014: On 26 February, INS Sindhuratna (S59), a Kilo-class submarine, had a fire detected on board when trials were being conducted which resulted in smoke leading to suffocation and death of two officers. Seven sailors were reported injured and were airlifted to the naval base hospital in Mumbai.^[25] According to the naval board of inquiry, the fire was caused due to problems in the cables of the vessel.^[26] This particular incident led to the resignation of Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) Admiral D K Joshi on 26 February 2014, who owned moral responsibility for the incidents in the past few months.^[27]

• March 2014: INS Kolkata, had a malfunction on board which led to a toxic gas leak killing Commander Kuntal Wadhwa instantly.^[28] It seems that the ship suffered malfunction in its carbon dioxide unit while undergoing machinery trials, leading to gas leakage.^[29] Since the ship was not commissioned at the time of the incident, the enquiry into the mishap will be done by Mazagon Dock Limited, where the ship was constructed.

• May 2014: INS Ganga (F22) suffered a minor explosion in the boiler room while undergoing a refit at the Mumbai dockyard. Four people suffered minor injuries. There was no fire and no equipment was damaged.^[30][31][32]

• November 2014: A Torpedo Recovery Vessel of the Astravahini class (A-73) sank 30 NM off the Vizag coast during a routine mission to recover torpedoes fired by fleet ships during a routine exercise. The accident resulted in the tragic death of one sailor while four others were reported as missing however 23 other personnel were rescued by SAR teams deployed right after the incident.^[33]

• March 2015: A Dornier Do 228 aircraft belonging to the Indian Navy Aviation Squadron 310, on a routine training mission, lost radar contact and ditched at sea about 20 nautical miles South West of Goa on the night of 24 March 15. The aircrew on board the aircraft comprised three officers (two Pilots and one woman Observer). The lone Survivor, Commander Nikhil Kuldip Joshi, was picked up by a passing fishing boat. The bodies of the other two officers Lieutenant Abhinav Nagori and Lieutenant Kiran Shekhawat have been recovered. Media reports suggest that the woman observer could be the first woman in India’s military to die in active service. Meanwhile, a Board of Inquiry has been ordered to establish the cause of the accident.^[34][35]

See also

• List of submarine incidents since 2000
• List of Russian military accidents
• List of Chinese military accidents

References