Coast Guard washes hands of Pavit row

To support its claim,the Coast Guard appended a copy of the July 2 news report published on a British news website The News (www.portsmouth.co.uk),which it said was forwarded to it by the Dubai-based owners of the ship as the source of the information that the ship had sunk.

In a letter,the Coast Guard said on July 31 — soon after they confirmed the “vessel is not a suspect ship” to the Mumbai Police — they directed Coast Guard vessel Amrit Kaur for “immediate probe” with a diver being airdropped on the deck.

The diver promptly recorded that the logs and records were “intact”. The second inquiry was done in two sorties by separate teams of Coast Guard officials on Monday between 11 am and 5 pm where the first formal update was — “water ingress in engine room,none of the machinery and equipment functioning,and logs,clothes,documents in cabin all strewn around”. Coast Guard officially declined having any information from local fishermen and local district authorities on Saturday and maintain their first response followed the call from the Mumbai Police Commissioner.

According to sources in the Coast Guard,the first e-mail on Pavit came on June 29 at 5.30 pm from the Marine Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC) of Falmouth Coast Guard,UK. The nodes of the vessel were exchanged as Mumbai’s Coast Guard Western Command was then the closest to the ship. According to the details exchanged,MT Pavit’s last port of call was Berbera,Somalia,and it had left for Dubai on June 22. With its expected arrival on July 1,the fuel in the vessel was “sufficient for pass”,according to the captain’s last log. The captain had pulled the distress signal on June 29,after which the MRCC in Coast Guard,Mumbai,contacted him while he was still on board.

The captain informed MRCC that the distress report had been conveyed to Managers Prime Tankers,Dubai,UK MTO and Oman Coast Guard. The MRCC took a review again and at 6.33 pm on June 29,the updated nautical location of MT Pavit was 675 miles from Mumbai coast with the drift position at ‘northeastern drift’. The MRCC then asked the Rescue Co-ordination Centre,Oman,to take charge and rescue the crew.

At 5 pm on June 30,Directorate General Shipping office was intimated that a merchant motor tank Jag Pushpa,an Indian flag ship of Great Eastern Shipping,was contacted by UKMTO and asked to co-ordinate after a Portsmouth-based Royal Fleet vessel St Albama travelled 100 nautical miles responding to a distress call. The rescue was complete on June 30 and the 13 crew members were taken to Sikka in Gujarat. Before being rescued,the captain had left the automatic identification system (AIS) “on” with the status “not under command”,about which he informed the Mumbai MRCC.

Meanwhile,on June 30,the MRCC requested the chief hydrographer,Government of India,to issue the NAVAREA (naval area) warning for NAVAREA IX — the reported position of the ship as on June 30 after the crew was rescued. The NAVAREA 1X is the Oman region where the ship was being monitored. On July 2,post an article that appeared on the web portal under the byline of a defence journalist stating: “Hero sailor saves crew as tanker sinks in storm”,the owners of the vessel updated the UKMTO that their ship had sunk and faxed it the update and the news article on July 2.

The Coast Guard,after separately verifying with UKMTO,removed the alert on the evening of July 2. The ship,said officials,had meanwhile lost its battery energy with the AIS dying down after it entered NAVAREA VIII — India’s nautical space — where it went undetected for 30 days as the alert for the ship had already been called off. In the absence of AIS and with the alert called back,security officials said it was impossible to track a vessel,manned or not,in the vast sea.

Antony asks Navy to file report

Shocked by the washing up of an abandoned merchant vessel on the Mumbai coast after it drifted in the Arabian Sea for a month,the Navy Chief has ordered an high-level inquiry into the incident and asked the Western Naval Command to submit a detailed report on the matter.

Defence Minister A K Antony has also taken serious note of the incident and is learnt to have expressed his concern and asked the Navy for details on the matter.

“It is a very serious incident and a breach of our coastal security system if an abandoned ship washes up ashore at Mumbai without being detected. A detailed report has been sought on the matter,” sources in the Defence Ministry said.

Express News Service