Naval officer dies trying to rescue colleagues

An Indian Navy officer died due to head injuries while saving other sailors who had fallen into the sea from a submarine off the coast of Mumbai on Monday morning.

"Lieutenant Commander Firdaus D Moghal, Executive Officer of Indian Naval Submarine 'Shankush', died in an accident off Mumbai while saving the lives of fellow personnel who had fallen in the sea," Navy officials said in Mumbai.

The Shankush, a German-origin HDW 'Shishumar'-class diesel-electric submarine, was on a planned exercise in sea when it developed a defect which necessitated the maintenance crew to come out on the casing and attempt repairs, they said.

"While coming out for effecting repairs, the maintenance team was washed overboard as the state of the sea was very rough and rescue operations led by Lieutenant Commander Firdaus were launched to recover them," they added.

During the operation, the officer also fell into the sea and suffered injuries on his forehead. "He was rescued by a helicopter and administered first- aid also but could not be revived. The post-mortem report has indicated death by drowning due to an injury," officials said.

Commissioned on January 1, 1988, Firdaus is survived by his wife Kerzinn and a two-year-old son.

This is the second such incident involving Indian submarines in the last two months as two of them had suffered minor damage in a collision at a jetty here in July.