Coast Guard vessel was a hi-tech rescue vessel
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 26 April 2013 18:07 IST
The Coast Guard vessel involved in ‘hit and run’ case by breaking a fishing trawler into two pieces and supposedly ‘killing’ some crew members believed to have been a rescue boat.
The horrifying accident took place at 5.15 am yesterday morning off Canacona coast.
While the crew members kept themselves afloat till 10 am till other fishing trawlers located and rescued 23 of them while five people are still missing.
The Cost Guard, after massive search, could locate only one body of Rajkumar Naik from Orissa.
Though it was earlier suspected to be a naval ship, later it was established that the vessel belong to the Coast Guard - ICGS Vaibhav.
The vessel was put into operation this month itself after Goa Shipyard handed it over to the Coast Guard on 1 April.
The ship has been indigenously designed 90-metre class offshore patrol vessel (OPV) and is equipped with advanced state-of-the-art navigational and communication equipment and sensors.
The vessel is designed to carry a helicopter and five high-speed boats for search and rescue, law enforcement and maritime patrol.
The ship is fitted with a Global Maritime Distress and Safety system (GMDSS), making it an apt platform to carry out search and rescue operations.
The vessel however hit the trawler and ran away instead of rescuing the crew members in spite of having all modern equipment on it.
The missing crew members are four from Chattisgarh and one from Orissa.
