KOCHI: The sea was wild with the waves reaching dangerous heights. A storm was raging and a wall of darkness was blocking their vision. It was a challenge like no other, but the rescue team proved its mettle.
The search and rescue team in the Seaking helicopter comprising first pilot Capt P Raj Kumar, co-pilot Lt Cdr Abhijeet Garud, tactical coordinator Lt Cdr Mayoor Chauhan and divers Deepak Sainee and Sumit Raj had a tough time locating the lone survivor in the wreckage of a fishing boat. First pilot Raj Kumar is a Malayali.
It was an strenuous job to slide down using a rescue strop and hoist the survivor up to the aircraft. “It was an incredible and daunting task,” said an officer. While the Seaking team was on a search and rescue mission, a P-8I maritime patrol aircraft of the Navy relayed the position of a suspected man among the wreckage of a fishing boat. It was around 5 pm on Friday when the rescue team received the message.
The team promptly rushed to the spot and found four survivors clinging to a capsized boat. The helicopter lowered a diver and rescued them. The survivors seemed weak and one of them was critically injured. They were flown to Thiruvananthapuram and provided medical care.
The survivors revealed that one of the crew members of the boat had drifted away from the capsized vessel due to strong currents. Despite strong winds and low vision due to nightfall, the rescue team decided to scour the sea to locate the missing man. The aircraft expanded its square reach (a type of search) around the datum, the spot where the four survivors were found. It was difficult to find a person in the turbulent sea in pitch darkness, but the team members did not lose hope and decided to search till the limit of their endurance.
Suddenly, they found a green light blinking in the sea and the pilot lowered the aircraft to the spot. He switched on the landing and hover lights around the spot and was able to sight a capsized boat. The diver also located the survivor through the cargo door. It was time for the toughest of rescue missions they had undertaken.
Though the crew lowered the rescue strop, the survivor was not able to pick it up as he was weak and traumatised. The diver went down with an omni glow and helped the survivor wear the rescue strop. Subsequently, both of them were winched up by the aircraft. The rescued man was given water and biscuits and rushed to Thiruvananthapuram, where he was admitted to the hospital. “Picking up a person from the turbulent sea in the night is a challenging task,” said an officer.