Indian Navy establishes visual contact with boat, he will be shifted to Australian ship Ballarat
Indian Naval officer Commander Abhilash Tomy, who is injured and stranded in the Indian Ocean fighting the rough waters with an injured back in a damaged boat, will be rescued by French vessel Osiris on Monday, the Indian Navy said. It added that the rescue should be over in the next 16 hours.
An Indian Navy P8i aircraft that flew from Mauritius on Sunday morning traced his boat and established visual contact with Tomy's boat Thuriya that was dismasted in the South Indian Ocean where he faced extremely rough weather with wind speeds of 130 km/hr and 14-metre high waves.
Tomy was participating in the Golden Globe Race and was in the third position when the accident occurred, leaving him incapacitated with a back injury.
In 2013, the naval officer was the first Indian to circumnavigate the globe and is currently the only Indian participating in the race that involves a challenging 30,000-mile solo circumnavigation of the globe. He had sailed 10,500 nautical miles in the last three months.
After being rescued by the French vessel, he will be shifted to the Australian Naval ship HMAS Ballarat that left from Perth earlier.
Tomy is about 1,900 nautical miles from Perth in Australia.
The earliest arrival of Indian Naval Ship Satpura was not possible before Friday.
The situation was being monitored at Naval Headquarters in New Delhi, as well as by the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre at Melbourne, Australia, Indian Navy said.
Quoting Captain Chandrahas Vivek, pilot of the aircraft which flew from Mauritius this morning, a defence spokesman said the aircraft established visual contact with the yacht and has landed back at Port Louis Mauritius.
The position was relayed to JRCC Australia and the War room in New Delhi through INMARSAT, he said.
RESCUE ON WAY
INS Satpura and INS Jyoti
Rescue ships enroute to help Tomy
14m
Height of the wave that hit Tomy’s vessel and dismasted him
130kmph
Wind speeds that he tackled
30,000NM
Circumnavigation goal of the race he was participating in
10,500NM
Tomy has completed over the last 84 days
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 "Abhilash Tomy")
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