Friday, February 28, 2014

We adore the decision of Navy Chief to resign


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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