We
never fully understood the Resignation of Navy Chief Admiral DK Joshi so
hurriedly; hours after the Accident that took place during the time of Test
Drive of the ill fated Submarine but if he did it on his own ‘will & desire’
for his inability to absorb the pain of the Navy personnel who had lost their
lives in the current Accident; we adore it with utmost respect for offering his
highest degree of respect to those who lost their lives. But such happening of
repeated Accidents in war ships only{not commercial Carrier}; is a matter of
grave concern to the Country; which directly reflects the up-keeping of such
Fleets as well as our preparedness to face any eventualities arising out for
whatever reason to protect the Nation. We now know that the Fire on Sindhuratna
was the 10th such accident involving an Indian Navy’s asset and the
third submarine accident in the last seven months. In August last year, Navy
submarine INS Sindhurakshak sank in the Mumbai harbour after an explosion on
board, killing 18 sailors {nonetheless Navy is hopeful of reusing INS
Sindhurakshak at a later date} which is the highest cause of concern for the
entire us. Facing of Accidents in Nuclear Powered submarine is understandable
in rare occasion but others must not face it so frequently. Therefore, the
exact causes of all such Accidents are not known to us. Furthermore, the entry
of sudden heavy smoke in the Crew accommodation area without detection of the
Fire that went loose soon after is worrisome.
The
Resignation of the Chief of Navy neither can resolve the issues nor infuse a
sense of safety to the entire that are in control of such warships; other than
satisfying the condition of relieving him of the pain, he undertook in his
heart which is ‘well and good’ as far as listening to one’s heart is concern.
If he is an expert in the line; we expect that Navy as well as Government shall
try its best to accommodate him in some Position to overcome the situation or
eliminate the cause of happening so, in the best possible way. Earlier late
Lalbahadur Shastri submitted his resignation taking Moral Responsibility for a
similar cause when he was a Minister of Railways without seeking to resolve the
issue first {being dedicated his life for serving the others} ; so that there
is no repetition of it but yet we are carrying on with the same old ailment.
While
I was in charge of maintenance of ‘Oil Rigs’ at OIL INDIA LTD; we had 2 very
old (more than twenty years) stream Rigs, the parts of which were locally
manufactured in-house under very strict supervision as and when required. Once,
when we took up the matter with Manufacturer of the Rig to procure a particular
item; the Manufacture offered ignorance of manufacturing of any such Rig by the
Company. This is exactly how a Machine Function if proper maintenance is
in-force under expert hands. The ‘OIL’ later discarded the Rig due to
requirement of risky handling of it by the ‘Drilling Crew’. Therefore, the life
of a Machine depends more upon; how we maintain it rather than the life covered
by it. However, for a Ship to ply at Ocean irrespective of whether or not is
Warship; the conditions are somewhat different being the both objects are not
supporting each other or always plying under conflicting situations as far as
environments under which both exits to remain alive. Therefore, it calls for constant
offering of an urgent as well as foolproof ‘maintenance schedule’ of each and
every part of the Ship to make the Ships remain under full health & to keep
it operational round the clock.
When
I was in USA for a very short period, just for about a week’s time in Homestead
at Maryland, during the year 2007, for the first 1st 4 days, there
was blow of siren at @4AM signalling a warning of Fire in the Hostel but all
were found false; nonetheless we all duly vacated it. But when the Firemen
inspected the Rooms one by one; they found that a guest was preparing food for
himself in a small fry Pan prior to the leaving for the Office. The little of
the littlest smoke produced by it during preparation of food was caught by the
Smoke detector to raise the Alarm. If such sensing instruments are available
with us or in Market at present, the said heavy production of Smoke inside the
Submarine for whatever reason has puzzled us to a great degree to take enough
of pain in our hearts for its unfortunate occurrence.
Since,
in a Submarine, the ventilation System is most important to ensure safely of
the members of the Crew; we are at our wit’s end to know of; where from the
Toxic Gas along with heavy smoke produced somewhere within the Ship had entered
the resting Cabinet of the Crew? This is, therefore, a matter of grave concern
for the entire of us to raise many doubts in our minds. Accordingly, setting
aside the sabotage factor; we strongly believe that it is the carbon deposits
within Airflow ducts that caught fire {either through development of friction
inside or coming into contact with exhaust Air from the Engine} to engulf the
other areas which cannot be stopped through spaying of water from outside being
the exact spot {location} of fire or Fire itself can never be seen from outside
being duly covered {often with asbestos outside} except throwing of Smoke
elsewhere through the Ducts.
Hence, we as an outsider {and having short of knowledge on the matter being discussed} we suggest that all Air flow Ducts are cleaned duly allowing an appropriate Gap in-between which shall ensure that no fire inside any Ship takes place in future; apart from ensuring that clean fuel is feed to the Engines with appropriate octane value of Diesel remains always intact. This holds good everywhere; where artificial air flow is maintained using an external source. Further, being the atmospheric pressure & temperature at Russia is much different than that of ours; we must draw a separate maintenance Schedule to keep such Ships in ORDER and in running condition.
{NOTE:
If the fire started in Battery Room (as reported) where Batteries are connected
in series for starting the Engines of Air Compressors (but always kept under
full charge for emergency use in case of any Engine failure; even though the
Ship is under running condition) to build pressure in ‘Air compressors’ to
start the Main Engines through use of ‘High Pressure Air’, how the smoke
quickly travelled into the resting area of the members of the Crew? Such fire
might occur either due to faulty batteries procured or due to lack of proper maintenance
by keeping the connectors loose or due to non- attending the area by any being
a venerable area for producing of heavy Sparking without notice. The same too
had happened in newly lunch Aircraft (Airbus 380) when the Manufacture decided
to replace all Batteries in the entire Fleet of Aircrafts so lunched.
Therefore, it is not exactly the lone reason of the misshape}
END
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