An Indian Navy officer drowned after suffering concussions on his forehead after he was hit by a wave and fell into the sea from the casing of a naval submarine off the Mumbai coast on Monday morning. The Indian Navy confirmed that “Lt. Cdr. Firdaus D. Moghal, executive officer of Indian naval submarine Shankush, died in an accident at sea off Mumbai in the forenoon hours today.”
Lt. Cdr. Moghal was leading a team of five naval personnel from the submarine who rescued four of their colleagues who were also hit by sea waves and had fallen into the sea. It all started when the submarine, on a planned exercise, “had developed a defect which necessitated the maintenance crew to come out on the casing and attempt repairs”. The Navy stated that “whilst coming out for effecting repairs, the maintenance team was washed overboard due to very rough sea state”. About two-thirds of the submarine was submerged in the sea when the accident occurred while the top one-third was exposed to the surface.
The team of five officers and sailors led by Lt. Cdr. Moghal started the rescue operations and managed to rescue all the sailors who had fallen into the sea. “During the operation, Lt. Cdr. Firdaus was also washed overboard and suffered concussions on his forehead. He was subsequently rescued by a helicopter which was dispatched from INS Shikra (naval air station) at Mumbai. The officer was administered first aid in the helicopter, but could not be revived. The post-mortem report has indicated death by drowning due to an injury,” the Navy stated.