Eighteen persons, including three crew members, of a small mechanised boat which set sail from the harbour here on Sunday morning for birdwatching, were rescued by the Coast Guard after the vessel went adrift 15 nautical miles off the Kalapet coast due to an engine failure.
The small boat started off from the harbour on Sunday morning with 15 birdwatchers from Puducherry, Chennai and Mumbai. And as the vessel reached 15 nautical miles, the engine developed a snag and the vessel started drifting perilously.
The crew tried to get back using the outboard motor but it too developed technical trouble after covering around 10 km towards the shore. The boat started drifting again forcing the crew and passengers to make frantic calls to friends and relatives.
Interceptor deployed
On getting an alert, the territorial police swung into action and informed the Coast Guard station here. DIG S.C. Tyagi, Commander, Coast Guard District Headquarters unit, Puducherry, told presspersons here on Monday that immediately after getting the alert, a search and rescue mission was launched in an interceptor craft. The interceptor began its rescue effort by around 6 p.m. and under darkness and in a channel not conducive for navigation, the Coast Guard personnel located the boat 15 nautical miles off Kalapet.
Mr. Tyagi said before his team reached the spot, six persons were shifted to a fishing boat which was passing through the area.
The maritime team removed the remaining nine members to the craft and towed the boat to the shore. “The craft with the passengers and crew reached the harbour around 3 a.m. on Monday. It was a difficult rescue operation. It was complete darkness and the CG team could spot the boat only because the passengers flashed light using their mobile,” he said. The commander said the boat did not have the capacity to travel beyond 5 nautical miles and it did not even have basic equipment for communication.
“The boat crew did not even possess a tow rope at the time of distress,” he said and added that the vessel was brought back using the rope provided by the CG personnel,” Mr. Tyagi said.
The vehicle neither had proper documents, such as seaworthy certificate, nor safety equipment
The boat belonged to a French national and it was used to conduct similar adventure trips from the harbour in the past. “Now, the police will investigate the case and accordingly initiate action,” he said.
Director-General of Police S.K. Gautam said the police had started the investigation and a case would be registered against the owner and crew.
One of the rescued passengers, K. Ragesh, a naturalist from Chennai, “We had GPS but obviously there were several shortcomings. We will completely cooperate with the police. We were not that panicky because we knew that the Coast Guard had launched a rescue operation,” he added.
