In a tragic way, at least 22 personnel have been found at sea off Bombay High, where ONGC’s Barge P305 with total 273 crew members sank owing to cyclone Tauktae. More than 65 members are still missing, according to a Navy official.
Battling against the extreme weather, the Navy have so far been able to rescue 186 personnel out of 273 .
The death toll is expected to rise as rescue operation continues.
“We’re still looking out for people in the area. We should be optimistic. Right now the conditions have improved. Hopefully, the worst is behind us,” Captain Sachin Sequeira, Commanding Officer of the INS Kochi warship told ANI news agency.
“The barge was sinking, so I had to jump into the sea. I was in the sea for 11 hours. After that [the] navy rescued us,” a survivor told ANI.
Three barges and an oil rig with 707 personnel on board went adrift on Monday. These included barge P305 with 273 persons, cargo barge GAL Constructor with 137 personnel on board, accommodation barge SS-3 with 196 personnel on board and the Sagar Bhushan oil rig with 101 personnel on board, the official said.
Deputy Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Murlidhar Sadashiv Pawar said the ongoing SAR is among the most challenging search and rescue operations in the last four decades.
(Input : PTI, ANI)
