One sailor killed, four missing as Navy Vessel sinks off Visakhapatnam

A Torpedo Recovery Vessel, TRV-72 of Indian Navy on Thursday night sunk off the Visakhapatnam coast during a naval exercise killing one sailor while four others went missing.

According to reports, 23 personnel have been recovered safely by Indian naval ships, out of 28 that were on board at the time of the incident.

A Sea King-42C helicopter with night vision capability was also deployed along with additional ships to assist in the search and rescue operation.

The Navy said in a statement that the incident occurred at about 35 nautical miles south of Visakhapatnam and 28 nautical miles from the closest point of the coast.

Full scale search and rescue by the Eastern fleet ships is in progress to look for missing personnel.

TRV-72 was deployed for a routine torpedo recovery mission. On completion, the vessel was returning to the harbour, when it reported flooding in its steering gear compartment.

Naval ships in the vicinity were immediately rushed to render assistance. Additionally, Dornier and Boeing P8I aircrafts were also deployed.

TRV-72 was built at Goa Shipyard and was commissioned into the Indian navy on 23 February 1983.

Earlier on October 31, INS Kora has also suffered minor damage after it was scraped by a merchant vessel near Visakhapatnam.