Panaji: One sailor died and three others were injured in an incident of steam leak and minor fire in one of the boiler rooms of INS Viraat on Sunday afternoon.
NS Viraat, which was on a routine deployment to Goa, reported an incident of steam leak and minor fire in one of the ship’s boiler rooms.
Chief Engineering Mechanic Ashu Singh was critical having suffered smoke inhalation and was shifted to the naval hospital at Goa where he suffered a cardiac arrest and succumbed to his injury.
While the incident was quickly brought under control, four sailors who were present at the scene and combating the fire sustained injury from the smoke.
The other three are under treatment and out of danger. Prima facie, some insulating material in the boiler room appears to have caught fire from heat due to steam leak. Investigations are on. Viraat is expected to sail back to Mumbai soon.
INS Viraat, the warhorse of the Indian Navy, has sailed across the oceans for nearly 60 years and is on her last operational deployment before it will be decommissioned or retired later this year. The incident comes on a day when Sea Harrier fighter jet flew off INS Viraat’s deck for the very last time.
