Survival for missing Navy personnel 'grim': Navy chief

The chances of survival of four missing Navy personnel from the Torpedo Recovery Vessel that sank are "grim", but the search will continue till Nov 13, Navy Chief Admiral RK Dhowan said Monday.

"Search operations at this point in time are still continuing though the chances appear a little grim. We will continue to make all efforts to see whatever can be done to locate the crew of the TRV," Dhowan said, a day after he went to Visakhapatnam to review the search and rescue operations.

Dhowan said the ship was in a "good condition" and had been checked before it set sail.

"Before a vessel sails out, all its aspects are checked. The ship concerned was in absolutely good condition," said Dhowan.

"The Navy has already launched a full-scale Search and Rescue (SAR) operation and we will do whatever we can to trace the missing four naval personnel. A board of inquiry headed by a Captain is in progress to investigate the circumstances that led to the mishap," he added.

Asked if the Navy is facing a problem of maintenance, the Admiral said 50 percent of ships in the Navy are more than 20 years old.

"We must understand this is an aspect related to force levels. The life of a ship is about 25-30 years depending on what type of ship this is and therefore in the Navy, at any point of time, you will have 50 per cent of the Navy which is more than 20 years old," the Navy chief said.

"And, of course, since we cannot induct platforms so quickly, we would like to optimally utilise every platform and see how life can be extended. This is where refits come in," he said.

"We would like to induct new platforms but at times delays take place and to overcome those delays we have to extend the service life. That is the situation as far as TRV 72 (that sank Nov 6) is concerned," he said.

Dhowan added the ship had undergone a refit last year.

"We will now have to see and go into details as to why kind of material failure took place which resulted in the uncontrollable sinking of this vessel," he said.

"We will go into the detail and find out what were the drawbacks, what were shortcoming with regard to any material failure or with regard to maintenance issue."

Day and night search operations are on, involving nine ships of the Eastern Fleet and aircraft including Boeing P8I, Dorniers, Sea King 42C and Chetak helicopters.

As per initial reports, the probable reason for the sinking of the vessel seems to be ingress of sea water (flooding) in the engine room and aft steering compartment of the vessel.