Watch: Indian Navy pull off daring mission on cargo ship burning for 5 days

The Indian Navy has successfully lowered down a salvage team onboard the distressed vessel MV Wan Hai 503, which has been on fire since June 9. Towing operations of the vessel have commenced.

The salvage team was winched down the vessel on June 13, amidst challenging weather & sea conditions, and fire onboard, the Indian Navy said in a post, sharing photos and videos from the operation.

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Fire broke out on the Singapore-flagged container ship on Monday, June 9. The 270‑metre cargo vessel was travelling from Colombo, Sri Lanka to Mumbai, India's commercial capital. The ship was located roughly 130 nautical miles (240km) west of Beypore, a port town in the southern state of Kerala, when explosions were reported from below deck.

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Vessel towed away from land

After the salvage team was lowered, the ship was towed farther away from the Kerala coastline on Saturday morning, defence sources said. The vessel has been towed 40 nautical miles away from land. Earlier, the ship was 27 nautical miles from land, they said.

According to a defence statement, the towing operation was initiated with a Seaking helicopter from the Southern Naval Command winching down salvors to shift the tow cables from the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) ships to the tug vessels.

Burning for 5 days

The ship met with an accident about 144 km off the coast of the southern Indian state of Kerala, said Shekhar Kuriakose, secretary of the state's disaster management authority.

Four crew members were reported missing and five injured after an explosion under deck was reported onboard MV WAN HAI 503 while it was on passage from Colombo to Nhava Sheva. Indian Coast Guard ships have been deployed for firefighting and rescue operations.

The vessel was carrying containerised cargo and had 22 crew members, including eight Chinese, six Taiwanese, five Myanmarese, and three Indonesian nationals. Following the explosion and escalation of the fire, the crew abandoned the ship.

Bahni Bandyopadhyay

bahni@khaleejtimes.com