2 dead as warship tips over at dock

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 5

Two personnel were killed and 14 injured after Indian Naval warship INS Betwa tipped over and hit land while being undocked at the dry-dockyard in Mumbai this afternoon.

The accident occurred when the dock mechanism to slide the ship out failed, Navy spokesman Captain DK Sharma said. The INS Betwa titled 90 degrees and the main mast was broken.

The mast houses the long-range surveillance radars.  Navy divers managed to save 14 injured persons. They are being treated at the naval hospital.

The Navy has described it as an “unprecedented and sad” incident. This is the third mishap at the docks since 2011. The INS Vindhyagiri sank in 2011 when a Cyprus-flagged merchant vessel rammed into it. The ship was the UAV operating base at sea. In August 2013, the INS Sindhurakshak exploded, killing 18 Navy men on board.

The INS Betwa was at the “Cruiser Graving dock” in Mumbai. The dock is under the Navy and the warship was to go out to sea after a re-fit. The 3,850-tonne guided missile frigate was commissioned in 2004.

It is not clear yet how the 126-m-long vessel, commissioned into the Navy in 2004, will be set to sail again. There is no crane that can lift such a massive weight.