By IANS
New Delhi : The tragedy on Indian Navy’s newly acquired troop carrier INS Jalashwa that left five sailors dead was caused by accidental inhalation of a poisonous gas on the vessel, it was announced Saturday.
Two officers were among the three who fell sick after the accident on the ship during an exercise in the Bay of Bengal Friday evening.
“The accident was the result of the inadvertent inhalation of H2S (hydrogen sulphide) gas by a repair party carrying out maintenance in one of the ship’s compartments and not due to fire or any other causes,” said an official press statement.
The deceased were identified as K.V.R. Krishna Rao, D.R. Kumar Chaitanya, Ramesh Kumar Nayak, Deepak Shivran and Narendra Yadav.
The injured, according to the statement, included Lt. Cdr. Sweth Gupta, Lt. Ruchir Prasad and Yatish Pawar.
“The injured personnel are being air transported from the ship to Port Blair for further medical treatment,” the statement said.
It said arrangements for transporting the bodies had been made in conjunction with the Indian Air Force.
The vessel, the former USS Trenton, was inducted into the Indian Navy in September.
“The Indian Navy regrets to inform the occurrence of an accident on board INS Jalshawa on the evening of Feb 1 while the ship was at sea, engaged in exercise with the fleet units between Visakhapatnam and Port Blair,” an earlier statement said. “We confirm with deep sorrow that five sailors lost their lives and three personnel are injured.”
A board of inquiry has been constituted, the statement added. Defence Minister A.K. Antony has expressed “deep regret” over the loss of lives.