This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/26/indian-sailors-missing-fire-submarine-mumbai

The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Indian sailors missing after fire on submarine off Mumbai Indian navy chief resigns after Mumbai submarine fills with smoke
(about 7 hours later)
Two Indian navy sailors are missing and seven others are in hospital after they were overcome by smoke during a firefighting training exercise on board a diesel-powered submarine off the coast of Mumbai. India's navy chief resigned on Wednesday, taking personal responsibility for a string of operational incidents, the latest of which saw smoke flood a submarine during a training exercise – with two officers still missing.
Navy spokesman Captain DK Sharma said a naval helicopter took the seven sailors to a navy hospital in Mumbai, but that two others remain unaccounted for. He said an inquiry has been ordered into the incident on Wednesday. The government said in a statement that it had accepted the resignation of the chief of naval staff, Admiral DK Joshi, who will be replaced on an acting basis by the vice-chief of naval staff, Vice Admiral RK Dhowan.
Sharma says the Russian-made submarine did not suffer any damage. A search continued for the two officers after smoke filled parts of a Russian-built submarine on a training exercise off the Mumbai coast in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Last August, another of the navy's Russian-built diesel-powered submarines, the INS Sindhurakshak, caught fire after an explosion and sank at its home port in Mumbai, killing all 18 sailors on board. The accident comes after a dockside blast in Mumbai killed all 18 aboard another submarine last August, raising concerns over India's ageing fleet and crew training.
Seven members of the 94-strong crew were evacuated after inhaling smoke on board the diesel-powered INS Sindhuratna.
Commander Rahul Sinha, a naval spokesman, said the source of the smoke had been removed, but declined to give details.
"When there is a fire in a submarine, the smoke is extremely toxic. There will be time before we enter the compartments completely," Sinha said. The two officers could not be accounted for more than 12 hours after the incident.
Without apportioning direct blame, the government said Joshi had taken "moral responsibility for the accidents and incidents which have taken place during the past few months".
Defence analysts said submarine crew members in the Indian navy were not getting enough training on one type of vessel before moving to another, increasing risks that minor incidents could have fatal consequences.
"It's a very ominous situation to be in," said Uday Bhaskar, a fellow at Delhi's National Maritime Foundation. "The Indian navy is going through a blighted phase."
Bharat Karnad, a senior fellow of national security studies at the Centre for Policy Research, said handling a ship required experience and young officers were not getting the time needed on smaller vessels before moving on to bigger ones.
Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, said: "You're beginning to see a trend and it's not a happy situation."
Although India has been operating submarines for decades, their numbers are dwindling with delays in procurement since the turn of the century, Rajagopalan noted.
She said older submarines were being retired without being replaced with new ones, and the top political leadership had washed its hands off the matter.
India's navy has had far fewer accidents than the air force, which has been dogged for years by crashes of Russian-made MiG-21 fighters.
However, most of the country's fleet of more than a dozen submarines is in urgent need of modernisation. Efforts to build a domestic arms industry have meanwhile made slow progress, with India still the world's largest weapons importer.
The INS Sindhuratna, a Soviet-built Kilo class vessel, was commissioned in 1988.
After smoke was spotted on the submarine at about 6am local time on Wednesday, crew members sealed the compartments and rescuers airlifted the seven who had inhaled smoke to a naval hospital where their condition is stable, said Sinha.
The submarine was still seaworthy and was being ventilated, said Captain DK Sharma, a naval spokesman.
An investigation was being opened into the cause of the incident, which appeared to be less serious than the dockside submarine blast in Mumbai last August.
In that incident, an accidental weapons detonation and fire killed everyone on board the INS Sindhurakshak. It was the most serious maritime loss for India since a 1971 war with Pakistan.