Indian Navy's brave act in Gulf of Aden: INS Trikand carries out fire rescue off African coast | Details
INS Trikans has been deployed in the Gulf of Aden for maritime security operations.
The Indian Navy's warship INS Trikand carried out a rescue and firefighting mission after a massive fire broke out on board the Cameroon-flagged LPG carrier MV Falcon off the coast of Djibouti.
INS Trikand has been deployed in the Gulf of Aden for maritime security operations.
According to the Navy, the ship's crew swiftly responded to a distress call, coordinating with a civil tug hired by the shipping company to bring the blaze under control. Twenty-four of the 26 crew members had managed to evacuate the vessel before INS Trikand arrived on the scene. They were rescued by merchant ships operating nearby.
The 26 crew members of the vessel include 25 Indians and one British national.
The navy revealed that a specialised team of firefighters and medical personnel from INS Trikand boarded the heavily damaged MV Falcon after reaching the spot. The team braved intense heat, toxic fumes, and structural damage to recover the mortal remains of the two missing crew members. The statement added that the recovered remains were later handed over to the Indian Embassy in Djibouti.
The LPG blast in the Gulf of Aden
The incident occurred on Saturday, October 18, when the MV Falcon experienced an explosion around 113 nautical miles southeast of Aden, Yemen. The ship was sailing from Oman's Sohar Port to Djibouti.
The blast, which left about 15 per cent of the vessel engulfed in flames, forced the crew to abandon ship as the tanker drifted at sea.
British maritime security firm Ambrey said preliminary reports suggest the explosion was accidental, though the cause remains under investigation. Radio transmissions from the ship indicated the crew's desperate attempts to contain the fire before they were forced to abandon the vessel.
The MV Falcon was carrying liquefied petroleum gas, a highly flammable cargo, raising fears of secondary explosions. The European Union's Naval Force, Operation Aspides, had earlier warned ships in the vicinity to maintain a safe distance due to the navigational hazards posed by the burning vessel.
Following the explosion, Operation Aspides launched an immediate search and rescue operation. Twenty-three Indian crew members were rescued from the sea, while search efforts continued for the missing personnel until INS Trikand reached the site and completed recovery operations.
The incident comes amid heightened maritime tensions in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, where Yemen's Houthi rebels have repeatedly targeted commercial vessels over the past year, claiming solidarity with Palestinians amid the Gaza conflict.
