Probe still on, but A K Antony blames navy for INS Sindhurakshak tragedy

New Delhi: Defence minister A K Antony on Wednesday stunned the naval top brass by virtually blaming the force for laxity in the sinking of submarine INS Sindhurakshak, even though the formal inquiry into the August 14 accident at the Mumbai dockyard is yet to be completed.

In comments that left many officers fuming, Antony even told the senior commanders to ensure “national resources" are not "frittered away" in such a manner. A senior officer retorted, "It’s very sad the minister said such things. Do you think that the three officers and 15 sailors killed on INS Sindhurakshak, all with several years of experience, wanted to commit hara-kiri?"

The Board of Inquiry, chaired by Commodore Deepak Bisht into the accident will only be able to complete its probe once the 3,000-tonne Russian-origin submarine — still submerged in about eightmetre water — is "fished out" for examinations.
Preliminary assessment has indicated it was "an accident or inadvertent mishandling of ammunition" in the fully-loaded weapons compartment of INS Sindhurakshak — which was all set to sail on a long-range patrol in the Arabian Sea — that caused things to spiral out of control with some missile and torpedo warheads exploding in "sympathetic detonation" , as earlier reported by TOI.

But pre-judging the matter while addressing the naval commanders’ conference here, Antony said, "We need to seriously reflect upon the incident, analyse it and also draw lessons for the future, even as attempts to salvage the submarine and an inquiry to ascertain the possible cause of the accident are already under way." Agitated naval officers said they did "volunteer for risky missions" by joining the service but that did not mean they were "suicidal" in nature.