Navy searching for Mexican lady cadet who fell overboard

Panaji:

Indian

Navy has launched search and rescue operations to find a Mexican lady

naval

cadet who fell overboard from the sail training ship Cuauhtemoc nearly 550 nautical miles off the Goa coast on Sunday.

The lady

cadet

fell overboard at 2pm and Navy officials said she was not wearing her life-saving gear. “We got the message that the cadet fell when they were experiencing rough seas. What they told us is that the ship rolled violently to one side due to rough seas and the cadet fell,” a Coast Guard officer at the Mumbai-based Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) told TOI.

The Indian Coast Guard operates the MRCC. The alert and the message was passed on to the Navy and nearby merchant vessels but bad weather has hampered operations. “We have raised a message alerting merchant ships. Our priority is to find the cadet,” a naval officer said.

The Navy has pressed two warships into operation along with a Boeing P8I aircraft operating from INS Hansa, Dabolim.

“Naval warship Teg, which was en route to Mumbai from Port Louis, Mauritius has been diverted to undertake search operations,” a naval officer said. Additionally, naval warship INS Mysore has set sail from Mumbai and is likely to join the search and rescue operations.

The Mexican naval vessel was on its way to Mumbai for a port call and is expected to sail to Singapore after that.

The Boeing P8I aircraft flew two sorties from 9pm to 11pm on Sunday and from 6:30am to 10:30am on Monday. “No success has been reported yet on sighting or recovery of the lady cadet,” the Navy said.