Navy chief against sending back INS Jalashwa

New Delhi: Naval chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta on Wednesday ruled out sending back INS Jalashwa to the US, from where it was acquired, in the wake of death of five sailors in a mishap on-board the amphibious landing ship.

Also read: Sailors died due to gas leak, says Navy

"The warship has been refurbished as per our specification and we do not need anything more on it," Mehta told reporters in New Delhi when asked whether the defects in the vessel could have led to the accident.

He said a board of inquiry was probing the death of five Naval personnel and it would find out the cause of the accident.

"It is an unfortunate incident. The board of inquiry is looking out how the concentration of gas came out from compartment and why it leaked," he said.

The mishap occurred while the recently acquired amphibious landing ship, Navy's second largest warship after aircraft carrier Viraat, was taking part in the big annual Tropex naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal last Friday.

Asked whether the ship was not upgraded properly and that the sailors died during refit, Mehta strongly denied it saying "the incident is nothing to do with those kinds of things".

"The ship is as upgraded as we needed. We do not need anything more on it," he said adding the incident was "not a setback" for the Navy as such accident did take place some time.

A Navy spokesman had said the sailors died because they inhaled hydrogen sulphide gas leaking from one of the compartments of the vessel. "The Naval personnel were carrying out maintenance work and died inadvertently by inhaling the leaking gas and not due to any fire or any other cause," he said.