Rescued Indian Navy Commander Abhilash Tomy safely brought back to India

Visakhapatnam: Days after being rescued from the Indian Ocean in a multi-nation operation, Commander Abhilash Tomy, who was under medical observation at Ile Amsterdam, was brought to Visakhapatnam safely onboard INS Satpura Saturday.

Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief (FOC-in-C) of the Eastern Naval Command (ENC), Vice Admiral Karambir Singh, briefly interacted with Commander Tomy and enquired about his health condition and the rescue operation, an ENC release said.

Tomy has now been shifted to INHS Kalyani, the naval hospital of ENC, for observation and medical assistance as required, it said.

The Commander-in-Chief also interacted with Capt Alok Ananda, the commanding officer of INS Satpura who lost his father while the ship was on operational deployment and diverted for the search and rescue operation.

Tomy was participating in the Golden Globe Race 2018 (GGR) representing India in the historic around the world race without modern navigation aids.

His sailing vessel, ‘Thuriya’, was dismasted on September 21 after being caught in a violent storm in the South Indian Ocean, approximately 1900 nautical miles West of Perth, Australia. Tomy suffered a severe back injury and dropped out of the race.

The Australian Rescue Coordination Centre at Canberra coordinated the rescue mission in conjunction with many agencies including the Australian Defence Department and the Indian Navy.

The release said Indian Navy launched ‘Operation Raksham’ to rescue the injured officer by immediately deploying the Long Range Maritime Reconnaissance Aircraft P8I in the area staging through Mauritius for providing close support and monitoring the rescue operations and diverted INS Satpura and Jyoti to undertake rescue operations.

On September 24, French fishing vessel Osiris reached the spot where the vessel was detected and carried out a successful rescue operation and later shifted Tomy to Ile Amsterdam.

INS Satpura safely evacuated Tomy using the ship’s helicopter on September 28. He was thereafter provided the requisite medical treatment onboard during the passage to Visakhapatnam, the release said.

The ship successfully executed ‘Operation Raksham’ and brought Cdr Tomy safely to Visakhapatnam displaying Indian Navy reach, mobility and versatility to responding to the challenges of ‘search and rescue’ mission, the release said.

“The event is another testimony of the Indian Navy being a credible ‘Net Security Provider’ in the Indian Ocean Region, it added.