Friday, March 8, 2013

Naval chopper crash: Wreckage spotted


By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Mar 7, 2013 : Three days after the ill-fated Indian Navy’s Chetak helicopter crashed into the sea, search and rescue teams on Thursday identified the likely spot where it could have gone under.
The rescue teams, comprising personnel from Eastern Naval Command (ENC), Indian Coast Guard (ICG), state government marine police, Visakhapatnam Port Trust, local fishermen identified the spot which was about  eight nautical miles away from famous Dolphin Nose.
The ENC sources said that since the wreckage was  said to be 400 meters deep under the sea sophisticated diving equipment was needed to retrieve it.  The equipment is being brought to Vizag along with a diving bell and trained special divers on a special ship from Kochi. The Diving Bell is a rigid chamber used to transport divers to depth in the ocean to retrieve the parts of the wreckage.
It will take at least another two days for the special ship to reach the Vizag, sources said. Meanwhile the ENC authorities are not hopeful of the two who went missing after the Chetak 440 crashed into sea on Tuesday afternoon.
However, the ENC ships and helicopters in association with the ICG, VPT and local fishermen are still continuing their search for them who were identified as Lieutenant Cmdr Pranava Likithi, 25 and GS Sen, 31.
 Chetak 440 was attached to a warship belonging to ENC. The chopper on Tuesday had taken off from INS Dega, naval air station on a routine sortie at about 2 pm on Tuesday in an area about 10 nm- 18 km seaward of Visakhapatnam, with four crew members onboard before it crashed.

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