The formal inquiry into what caused the INS Sindhurakshak to go up in flames after successive explosions will take at least a month to come out with a report but the names of those who died in the incident tell their own story of what possibly went wrong. In the list of 18 personnel on board the submarine that has been released by the Navy,there are five sailors and officers who specialised in torpedo operations,including the main officer in charge of underwater weapon systems of the Sindhurakshak,Lt Commander R Venkitaraj. Sources said that the large number of torpedo specialists three petty officers and a sea man confirms the theory that ammunition was being loaded on board the submarine when the explosions took place. The large number of specialists on board,including the second in command of the boat,Lt Commander Nikhilesh Pal,clearly indicates that the submarine was being loaded for an operation. This task is sometimes carried out at night as the torpedoes have to be brought from across the bay on a tug and during the day,the armaments can get heated excessively, an official said. The other torpedo specialists on board were Sanjeev Kumar,K C Upadhyay,Timothy Sinha and Sunil Kumar. While it has been established that ammunition was being loaded on board when the detonations happened,it is yet to be clarified whether the torpedoes had been armed a stage at which they are more vulnerable to accidents. In most cases,the actual arming of torpedo and missiles takes place according to the mission or policy of the fleet. Senior Navy officers say the cause of the explosion cannot be speculated at now due to a lack of information but according to available inputs,the Sindhurakshak first caught fire. It seems there was first a fire in the bow of the submarine that was followed by successive explosions. The cause of the fire is not certain but we do not consider a hydrogen build up as one of the probable causes, a top officer said. The immediate task at hand for the Navy is to salvage the submarine and lift it out of the water to not just retrieve bodies but also begin the investigation into what went wrong. Sources said that as of now,offers for assistance have come from several nations including Germany,France and the US but no formal help has yet been sought.
