One sailor died while 23 others aboard the Torpedo Recovery Vessel were rescued last night.
In view of the accident, Navy Chief Admiral R K Dhowan, who is on a four-day visit to Seychelles till November 9, is cutting short his visit to reach Visakhapatnam, Navy officials said.
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Nine ships of the Eastern fleet and a few aircraft including Boeing P81, Dorniers, SKG 42C with night vision capabilities and Chetak helicopters were deployed through the night to search for missing personnel, Navy spokesperson D K Sharma said.
Citing preliminary information, the Navy sources said the "probable reason" for the sinking of the vessel seems to be ingress of sea-water in the Engine room and Aft Steering compartment.
This, they said, could have been because one of the seals in the shaft gave way, which is a maintenance issue.
This particular ship was built by Goa Shipyard Limited in 1983 and has served the Navy for the last 31 years.
Sources said the average age of a ship is usually 20-25 years but there has been cases when older ships have continued to be in service for longer.
The Navy had released a statement last night saying that there were 28 personnel on board at the time of accident.
The desired load of this vessel is about a crew of 13 but sources said operational requirements have to be factored in.
"The Board of Inquiry headed by a Captain will go into all aspects of the accident," a senior Naval officer said.
The vessel went down at 8 pm last night while it was on a "routine" mission to recover practice torpedoes fired by fleet ships during a "routine" exercise, the Navy statement had said.