Four explosions took place in the morning of June 17 in the 'SSL Kolkata'
Four explosions took place in the morning of June 17 in the 'SSL Kolkata'. The Indian Navy (Eastern Naval Command) has deployed Special Forces ~ MARCOS ~ to stop the vessel from drifting further towards the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) with Bangladesh. A team of MARCOS, marine commandos, were winched down aboard Mthe vessel to drop its anchor. A MARCOS team along with a Specialist Naval Team (SNT) and few operating officers of the concerned vessel took off from Kalaikunda Air Force Base at 7:30 a.m. in a SeaKing 42 Charlie helicopter. The chopper first winched down three MARCOS commandoes on the vessel at 8:30 a.m. with thermal imaging camera and necessary equipment for safety reconnaissance. They ascertained the conditions in the forward part of the ship and later called in the helicopter to lower onboard three crew members of the ship. The team managed to drop the starboard anchor from the ship to prevent it from drifting any further. The MARCOS team then entered the engine room and attempted to start it in order to tow the ship but right at that moment, four explosions took place, two big and two small, in the containers on the upper deck of the ship. It was then assessing the risks that we decided to extract the team from the ship and they were pulled up at 9:30 a.m. Thereafter, they flew back to Kalaikunda Air Force Base. The Navy ship INS 'Kadmatt', a corvette, also sailed down from Vizag and was brought to provide assistance to the SeaKing chopper so that in case it ran out of fuel, it could land on the ship and refuel. The Navy also had its Dornier aircraft for surveillance. The operation by the Special Forces had to be carried out in tough weather conditions this morning as the sea was choppy while there were strong winds of around 30 knots. The present location of the ship was 22 nautical miles from IMBL, 70 nautical miles from Haldia Port and 10 nautical miles from Bangaduli Island. The whole operation was done in liason with the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT), DG Shipping, Indian Coast Guard, ship owners, agents and salvage specialists, who were reaching Kolkata from Singapore to salvage the ship by 6 p.m. and douse fire using foam guns and equipments that only they possess.
