Fire in indian SSK: one sailor killed and two injured

[Lofty]

battreries don't usually explode but charge gassing does and has killed many people over the years.
Peter.

[torres1944]

The fire mishap on INS Sindhurakshak in Visakhapatnam that left a sailor dead and two others injured was caused by an explosion in its battery compartment, Navy officials said in New Delhi  on Saturday.

Sindhurakshak, a Russian-origin Kilo class submarine, was in the Visakhapatnam harbour for a routine maintenance when the mishap occurred on Friday evening.

"It was due to a defective battery and Leading Electrical Technician Kump Dand was killed," the official said.

India had bought the 2300-tonne submarine from Russia as part of an early 1980s deal and commissioned it in 1997. It is the ninth of the 10 Sindhugosh class diesel-electric powered vessel that the Navy has in its 16-vessel submarine fleet.

"INS Sindhurakshak"  is scheduled for a major mid-life refit later this year as part of a programme for this class of vessels, which began in 1997 with  the "INS Sindhuvir".

In January 2008, another vessel from this class, "INS Sindhugosh", collided with a merchant vessel off Mumbai while participating in a naval exercise.

The Navy has been worried over its fast-depleting submarine fleet and by the delays in the construction of the six Scorpene submarines at the Mumbai-based Mazagon Docks and the long time taken in identifying a shipyard to order the second line of submarine construction.

http://news.rediff.com/report/2010/feb/27/sindhurakshak-mishap-due-to-explosion-of-battery.htm

[torres1944]

  The entire  "Sindhughosh-class" (Russian Kilo)  is under an upgrade program of her electronic and  weapon systems. The missile system "Klub-S" ( 300 NM of reach) had been installed in some boats and in the 2008 India had rejected to accept one of them in service because there were problems in the  software interfaces between de combat system  and the missile system.  The rejected SSK  was newly accepted for the indian Navy in the middle 2009.

   I dont know if the "INS Sindhurakshak"(S63) had been upgraded or not.

  

[xbilgerat]

Always bad news to hear of an accident in 'boats'. I have long suspected the now very complex electrical and computerised systems for a number of reasons;

• Questionable manufacture of equipment and country of origin
  Installation of systems
  In the case of IT software
  Training of personnel in use of high tech systems

Sabotage is always a possibility too with so many different nations often involved in the provision of material. Fires seem to happen more than in earlier boats or is the media more active?

[torres1944]

Hyderabad,  February 26, 2010


A sailor was killed and two others injured after a fire broke out in a submarine at Naval Dockyard in Andhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam city on Friday, police said.

According to police, a 24-year-old sailor died and two others suffered burn injuries in the fire mishap occurred in "INS Sindhurakshak"(S63) diesel electric submarine of the "Sindhughosh-class" (russian "Kilo" class) in the shipbuilding centre of the naval dockyard.

However, no case has been registered in this regard, they said, adding that a formal complaint was awaited from the navy. This was the first fatal accident that caused casualties in the Indian navy's submarine fleet since the beginning of this year. The local police said it was still not clear how the fire occurred.

There are about 16 conventional submarines in the Indian navy.

It is still not clear how the fire broke out and how many sailors or workers were engaged in work on the submarine when the incident happened, police said.

SOURCE: India Today

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/StoryPrint?sId=85960&secid=114&page=null

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INS_Sindhurakshak_%28S63%29