MANGALURU: The crew aboard the barge Iris was working since Saturday morning placing tetrapods on the berms. At 3.30 pm the barge experienced a list (leaning of a ship) but the crew went on with their job till 4.15pm by which time the vessel had listed 30 degrees, reasons for which are unknown.
While locals have questioned why Coast Guard, the Navy and district administration did not deploy helicopters for rescuing the marooned workers, Coast Guard officials only said that the weather was inclement for helicopters to be pressed into service.
The workers in fact had wanted to come to the shore on Saturday to receive their weekly payment. Kochi and Goa stations of the Coast Guard have two heliopters each while there are several helicopters with the Navy at Seabird naval base in Karwar and in Kochi but it’s not clear why all of them were cooling their rotors in their hangars.
The Coast Guard ship CGS Amartya which was pressed into rescue operations immediately after the first signal of distress could only rescue four of the crew. Amartya also was not equipped with a helicopter which peeved the officials of the Disaster Management Committee of the district.
While Amartya was at position, communicating with the crew at night, Coast Guard said it will deploy a hovercraft at 4am Sunday.
ICGS Rajdoot has been kept on standby at short notice for sailing.