XO Of Indian Submarine Lost At Sea
From Indian Express:
A Lieutenant Commander with the Indian Navy drowned in an accident involving submarine INS Shankush, about 60 nautical miles off the coast of Mumbai on Monday.More information can be found here. Sailor, Rest Your Oar.
Lt Cdr Firdaus D Mogal, Executive Officer on board the HDW-built Shishumar Class submarine, was leading a team of five officers and sailors attempting to rescue a member of the maintenance crew who had fallen overboard, when he too was swept off the casing around 8.30 am.
INS Shankush was on deployment preparing for an exercise when the submarine developed a snag, causing crew members to come out and attempt repairs, said a statement issued by the Navy. “The sea outside was very, very choppy,” said a Navy spokesperson. A wave swept across the submarine and the maintenance crew was thrown into the water.
Lt Commander Mogal, commissioned in 1998, led a team that tried to recover all the sailors who had fallen overboard...
posted by Bubblehead at 5:39 PM
23 Comments:
This sounds sadly familiar, doesn't it?
8/30/2010 6:18 PM
A sad event indeed. I seems odd that the Mumbai police would be investigating the navy on this accident.
8/30/2010 6:54 PM
Rest your oar brother.
It could be the police investigate all deaths. I'll ask my friend tomorrow.
8/30/2010 7:32 PM
Sadly, he called for help but the call was outsourced to an Indian tech support desk...and not even he could understand them!
--------------------
Seriously, anytime a sailor is lost at sea it is a tragic event and being a submariner makes it that much closer to home.
Anyone who has ever been to sea understands that man can not and will not ever control mother nature. To think different is truly foolish.
8/30/2010 8:00 PM
sad news indeed.
8/30/2010 8:54 PM
On the enlarged file photo of a Turkish Type 209-1400 sub (same class as INS Shankush) one notes a spiky object about 2-1/2 feet tall and 6-8 feet forward of the sail.
Whatever caused severe bleeding to the deceased XO's head as he fell onto a generally sleek deck of a sub no doubt has to be verified. Should the protruding deck object have been retracted, as the Mumbai Mirror suggests, negligence might be involved. If he struck his head on a mounted deck fixture (e.g. (sonar transducer), police would be able to help INS sort things out.
In any case, the XO sounds like a fine submariner attempting to save his shipmates. His family and crew have my complete sympathy.
8/30/2010 9:02 PM
The officer was a Commander and yes he was a very fine officer. The police procedures are what police procedures and bear no significance. We lost a very fine brother in arms and he is survived by a one year old child and wife. I would request those who have no idea of what it is to go out on the casing of the submarine in a choppy sea to kindly refrain from even daring to comment on it. We submarines realise that we are but a drop in the ocean and the fury of the sea is unmatchable. The least I would request is for you to delete the stupid comment someone has offered. As fellow submariners, we owe him that much.RIP brother.
8/31/2010 11:50 AM
And let us be reminded by the corageous act of Commander Firdaus Mogal who jumped overboard to save his men :-
The Safety, Honour and Welfare of your Country come First, Always and
Everytime.
The Honour, Welfare and Comfort of men under your command come Next.
Your own Ease, Comfort and Safety come Last, Always and Everytime.
Need I say more about the officer and the gentleman.I can only wish that I have the same amount of courage that he had.
8/31/2010 11:57 AM
{The police procedures are what police procedures and bear no significance. }
We are curious because in most other countries, the municipal police would not have jurisdiction. Do the Mumbai police have special authority over nautical incidents?
8/31/2010 1:04 PM
We have seen Indian police involved in naval fatalities earlier this year such as here
Scheeberger
8/31/2010 1:31 PM
I'm guessing they don't wear those horrendous looking (& of dubious value) cranials when topside in open water the way we were forced to wear during BSP's. Wonder if it would have even made a difference.
The XO was courageous and his family and shipmates have my sincere condolences.
This brings back sad memories of the MSP and the tragic loss of their COB (Senior Chief Higgins) and STS2 Holtz in a similar topside scenario in rough seas.
8/31/2010 3:56 PM
If submarines can deploy SLBMs, torpedos, mines, missiles, signal flares, countermeasures, bouys, and trash, why can't a simple life raft be deployable as well?
9/01/2010 11:06 AM
Anon @ 11:06 AM
Who would have been helped by a life raft in choppy seas? Everyone was rescued safely except the XO, who tragically incurred a serious head injury before being swept overboard and drowning.
While many subs have/had one small life raft, storage space on a submarine is scarcer than gold coins in a nudist camp.
Carl
9/01/2010 1:19 PM
Standing lookout watch while transiting to the dive point beyond the Firth of Clyde, there were several occasions where the OOD or Skipper let me conn the boat in what I remember being called a "Willimson Maneuver". I guess they figured the OOD could fall overboard which would leave me to call away the casuality and make the initial rudder orders. It was a pretty cool thing to do and I was lucky to arrive back at the floating 5 gal coffee can used to simulate a man overboard more than once.
Back then I had the same questions as Anonymous 11:06. It seemed like a life raft could be designed to fit into and be shot from a torpedo tube. Anytime there was a possibility for an "underway" man overboard (such as a surface transit), the raft or rafts could be loaded in one of the torpedo tubes and be ready to fire.
This may all sound kind of Jules Verne-ish, but it could also possibly save lives.
Ok, such a contraption probably wouldn't do much good for a guy too injured to take advantage of it. But not all get injured when they go overboard.
9/01/2010 3:26 PM
@ Anonymous 3:26 PM
I believe it is called a "Wilkenson Turn", where you put the rudder hard over one direction until you were 30 degrees off off base course, then shift your rudder until you were on reciprocal course, putting you back on track but in the opposite direction. But it's been a while.
-LT L
9/01/2010 5:17 PM
Man in sight - Used the Anderson turn, which is a full rudder circle to return to the swimmer. Stop engines until clear, then adjust bells and heading to avoid overrunning the MOB.
MOB well astern, use the Williamson turn, which involves the shift in rudder. Designed to run down your track's reciprocal.
My DD had a delayed MOB one night in the Caribbean. We think he was pushed. Williamson turn. The ship got pretty quiet when "Man is in the water for 2 hours" was announced. A helo saved him after dawn.
9/01/2010 5:54 PM
The lookout and target driver got it right...it's called and Williamson. There is also the Anderson and Scharnow turns. All have specific uses.
Jim C.
Ret. ANAV
9/01/2010 8:09 PM
Jim,
When doing evals in TTF SPAN, I would always groan when Capt. V. would launch into his (Never Less Than) 30 minute dissertations in MOB recovery...which usually ended with: "Let the Escort pick him up"! Just thought I'd revisit a painful memory for ya!
9/02/2010 3:42 PM
Paul,
Thanks for the flashback!
Jim C.
9/02/2010 6:59 PM
Fare winds and Following seas,,, See you at the 7-11 in the next world Gunga Din....
9/07/2010 9:41 AM
Just another glorified lunatic must have had " superman syndrome" ....navy never tells the truth...indians open your eyes.
2/22/2011 2:27 AM
Just another glorified lunatic must have had " superman syndrome" ....navy never tells the truth...indians open your eyes.
2/22/2011 2:27 AM
Just another lunatic with a "superman syndrome" trying to gain his next promotion....indians open your eyes
2/22/2011 2:33 AM
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