The heavily armed Indian navy frigate was equipped to do battle with enemy battleships and submarines, but it went up in flames as soon as it was hit … not by a torpedo or enemy vessel, mind you, but by a merchant ship.
The sinking of the INS Vindhyagiri, a 3,000-ton warship, marked the worst-ever peacetime loss for the Indian navy, Indian Express reported, adding that it’s also pretty embarrassing.
The warship was returning from a “day at sea” for families of sailors and officers and was entering the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust off the coast of Mumbai on Sunday afternoon, the website said.
Video taken by a passenger aboard the INS Vindhyagiri caught the collision as it unfolded. Those aboard the navy ship can be seen scurrying nervously as the merchant vessel approaches the frigate.
The Cyprus-flagged MV Nordlake, which was leaving the harbor, narrowly missed another container vessel, the MV Sea Eagle, and as it turned to avoid the Sea Eagle, it slammed into the frigate.
The collision cracked the warship's hull near the waterline. Water rushed in, and a fire broke out in the engine room, the Indian Express reported.
The Mumbai Mirror reported that the Navy attempted to put out the blaze, but the added water served only to sink the ship faster.
The ship was towed into the harbor, but it sank Monday afternoon. Police said they planned to arrest the Nordlake’s captain, according to the Indian Express.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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So much for a three hour cruise.
I'm thinking Indian sailors need some training on Flooding Control.
"The Mumbai Mirror reported that the Navy attempted to put out the blaze, but the added water served only to sink the ship faster."
Anyone else hear the Benny Hill music playing in the background?
Will this event go down as India's Pearl Harbor Day?
...and that's where we are outsourcing good old USA jobs to... cheap though, those Navy vessels made out of paper
For everyone's knowledge: the- INS Vindhyagiri was a Nilgiri class frigates built in Mumbai during the late 70s, was the last of it's class still active, and already on it's way to be decommissioned by the end of the year. So while this was a bad situation because of the families put in danger and shows a major training deficiency, it is not a major loss to the Indian navy since it was due to be a reef soon.
That ship is coming right for us! What to do? Quickly, where's the script I am supposed to read from?
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Keithfi has it right. Assuming that the Indian frigate and freighter Sea Eagle were not operating in a marked (deed) channel that prevented them them from changing course to avoid going aground they would be the "burdened vessels" who had a duty to change course or adjust speed to avoid collision. Moreover the container ship Nordlake as the "privileged vessel" would be under a similar duty to maintain course and speed in order to assist the burdened vessels in carrying out their maneuvers. That's just basic nautical Rules of the Road stuff until a collision appears imminent, then the "general prudential" rule applies. It is possible that the Sea Eagle's actions might actually justify the Nordlake's claimed change of course to avoid a collision with the Sea Eagle? You really can't tell from the video.
One thing is certain, the upcoming inquest won't be nearly so simple as the news reader implies; it won't involve just the skippers of the frigate and the Nordlake; and the assumed guilt of the Nordlake's skipper isn't nearly as obvious as the news comments make it appear.
It's good that there were no casualties
i think that i like that cuz i like to c flames and boobs
Im sure it was just another muslim terrorist plot
I love the part where it says that the efforts of damage control actually made it sink faster!!!
can you say "Commonwealth Games"?
this was part of the show... since the ship was old, it was supposed to sink at the end of the family event... dramatic like bollywood movies..
this is really funny! Only can happen in mad countries liek India or US.
Indians better get their act together otherwise we in the US will have to deal with Islamic republic of Pakistan and China and the rest of those evil bums. India borders the evil empires of teh Pakis and the Chinese – now there's bad karma.