Four Naval personnel, including two officers, were killed when the docking gate collapsed in the ship-building centre inside the Naval Dockyard here on Wednesday morning.
The docking gates are meant to intake sea water into the dry dock. “The victims were sitting on the gate and supervising the operation when the accident occurred, resulting in the death of three Navy personnel and severe injuries to a sailor who died later at the hospital,” according to Commander T.L.P. Babu, official spokesman of the Navy. The names of the victims are Commander Aswani Kumar, 47, Lt. Commander Ranbheer Ranjan, 30, Master Chief (Ship Wright) Madhu Babu, 31, and Chief Ship Wright Rajesh, 30, who died at the hospital.
There are two docks in the Matsya Dock. In the first, there was a ship, and a nuclear submarine was under construction in the other. The tragedy occurred when a new gate was being tested. The officials and staff were sitting on the huge gate. The welding gave way, and the gate broke into two pieces.