The Times of India has reported that a naval officer died on Friday after a fire broke out on board carrier INS Vikramaditya.

“Lieutenant Commander DS Chauhan bravely led the firefighting efforts in the affected compartment,” the Indian Navy said in a statement.

While the fire was brought under control, the officer lost consciousness due to the smoke and fumes during the firefighting efforts. He was immediately evacuated to the Naval Hospital at Karwar but could not be revived, according to officials.

The carrier came to India from Russia in January 2014 and is 284 metres long. The ship weighs 40,000 tonnes and is the biggest ship in the Indian Navy.

The vessel was originally built as Baku and commissioned in 1987, the carrier served with the Soviet Navy and later with the Russian Navy (as Admiral Gorshkov) before being decommissioned in 1996.

The carrier was purchased by India in 2004 after years of negotiations at a final price of $2.35 billion.

The ship completed sea trials in 2013 and entered service in 2014.

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George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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David
David
4 years ago

$2.35 billion! The Russians must have been p***ing themselves.

Cymbeline
Cymbeline
4 years ago
Reply to  David

India must have been desperate to join the carrier club, they obviously saw it as making a statement in their region and to China.

Rokuth
Rokuth
4 years ago
Reply to  Cymbeline

They were in a “Catch 22” situation with the Russian carrier. The Indians did try to back out of the purchase but found that clauses in the contract meant that they would still have to pay sizeable penalties for backing out.

Trevor
Trevor
4 years ago
Reply to  Rokuth

India has a poor record then of being shafted with military contracts…Didn’t they get stick with a crummy deal with the French and Rafale. Huge controversy over that in India?

andy reeves
andy reeves
4 years ago
Reply to  Trevor

maybe this will put india off its repeated purchase of russian arms

Harikrishnan
Harikrishnan
4 years ago
Reply to  Cymbeline

India operates aircraft carriers from 1961. INS Vikrant, brought from UK (HMS Hercules) in 1957. It played a crucial role in 1971 India-Pakistan war which resulted in the formation of Bangladesh. India acquired second aircraft carrier in 1987, INS Viraat. INS Vikramadithya is the third Indian aircraft carrier. Indegenious aircraft carrier (IAC 1) built in India commissioned in 2013. IAC 2, a super carrier of 65000 tons(INS Vishal) is also under construction.

The Big Man
The Big Man
4 years ago
Reply to  Harikrishnan

Not forgetting INS Viraat was the Falklands veteran HMS Hermes, now awaiting her final fate possibly becoming a floating museum.

Cam
Cam
4 years ago
Reply to  David

The ship was Free to India but India just had to spend 1.8 ( now 2.35) billion on the overhauling of the ship and buying Russian jets but the Russian contractor spent a fortune overhauling every compartment in the ship and replacing boilers ect ect ect costing billions! and contractors from the UK and other EU nations done lots of work on the ship so Russia didn’t really make billions! lol, but looks like the ships still upto Russian standards with a fire onboard.

And The Russian contractor actually wanted more money an extra billion I believe!!…

andy reeves
andy reeves
4 years ago
Reply to  David

buy cheap, get cheap

John Hampson
John Hampson
4 years ago

The artitcle says the vessel was built in Baku? Baku is on the Caspian Sea which is land locked with no access to the open sea.

Pete
Pete
4 years ago
Reply to  John Hampson

Think it was named Baku…. Then had name change when soviet union collapsed

David
David
4 years ago
Reply to  John Hampson

It says it was built as Baku not in Baku

Steven
Steven
4 years ago
Reply to  John Hampson

As Baku not in Baku.

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli
4 years ago
Reply to  John Hampson

Not sure if Baku has built warships? The shipyards at Severomorsk and Archangelsk in the north do though.

Cam
Cam
4 years ago
Reply to  John Hampson

Yeah… it was in Ukraine these carriers were built.

Pete
Pete
4 years ago

That is one hell of a fire in the photo. Thoughts for the crew and families

Pete

Levi Goldsteinberg
Levi Goldsteinberg
4 years ago

There older carrier had a sewage explosion onboard which killed three people

Callum
Callum
4 years ago

Death by sewage. What a shitty way to go

Steven
Steven
4 years ago

I refuse to make any jokes about curry, it would be inappropriate.

Spyinthesky
Spyinthesky
4 years ago

These carriers sure have a terrible record wherever they crop up, if any class of ship is truly jinxed this is it.

Lee1
Lee1
4 years ago
Reply to  Spyinthesky

They are not Jinxed they are just terrible…

Joshua Leshem
Joshua Leshem
4 years ago

I had the honour to work with the IN leading and managing the integration of the Barak 1 ship defence system onboard the INS VIKRAMADITYA and the comissioning of the system on early 2017.
Great ship and team.
Hope the ship will never suffer from this kind of mishapps.

Geoffrey Hicking
Geoffrey Hicking
4 years ago

When you look at the problems the French, the Americans, the Indians, the Chinese, and the Russians have had with their latest carriers, you have to wonder what the common elements of each problem are. How did we manage to be the only carrier nation to do well in our latest QEC endeavour? Its morbidly fascinating.

Especially as France and America have extensive experience operating and building carriers, and India has had a lot of experience operating carriers since the 60s….

Alan Reid
Alan Reid
4 years ago

“How did we manage to be the only carrier nation to do well in our latest QEC endeavour?”
Scottish ship-builders, Geoffrey! Well you did ask! LOL

Geoffrey Hicking
Geoffrey Hicking
4 years ago
Reply to  Alan Reid

Makes sense! 😉

andy reeves
andy reeves
4 years ago
Reply to  Alan Reid

if there’s anything to be said about scottish ship builders, it is the awfully slow rate of production

Alan Reid
Alan Reid
4 years ago
Reply to  andy reeves

Hi Andy, Perhaps that “awfully slow rate of production” might be down to the customer ….

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli
4 years ago
Reply to  Alan Reid

Spot on Alan.

Cam
Cam
4 years ago
Reply to  andy reeves

The Scottish ship builders once built most of the worlds ships, it’s nothing to do with them it’s the “customer”

keithdwat
keithdwat
4 years ago

RIP, my condolences to everyone and their families.
But could this mean India could put down an order for 2 QEs??

andy reeves
andy reeves
4 years ago
Reply to  keithdwat

won’t happen

Keithdwat
Keithdwat
4 years ago
Reply to  andy reeves

Yeah, but they are looking for one!

John Hampson
John Hampson
4 years ago

I worked in India for 3 years. India generally has a serious structural problem. The people at the top are usually completely incompetent and have obtained their positions by priviledge. The bottom do as they are told without question ( similar to Russia). The middle ranks are as good as anywhere and better than most. So the upper levels devote much of their time protecting their position from being challenged by more capable juniors. I was on an operation costing millions. Due to progress and unexpected conditions we needed help. The only source was a from the state owned company.… Read more »

dave12
dave12
4 years ago
Reply to  John Hampson

Great post.

The Miltary Specialist

Kuzya`s brother.

Alan Garner
Alan Garner
4 years ago

You can take the ship out of Russia but not Russia out of the ship!

Steve
Steve
4 years ago

I wonder how much if the design of the QE the British government owns and how much is owned by private companies. Assuming india buys the QE design as heavily speculated, how much will flow back to the tax payer and how much will to to BAe etc overseas shareholdees.

Cam
Cam
4 years ago
Reply to  Steve

I wish BAE was more Britain focused but they see the bright lights of USA and the rest and go calling! Middle finger to the UK….

Lee1
Lee1
4 years ago
Reply to  Cam

They are a private company. They want to make money. US companies would be exactly the same if their home market was not so large.

The Big Man
The Big Man
4 years ago

Not sure this picture is the actual event. According to the Indian press, the fire was brought under control quickly preventing any serious damage to the warship’s combat capability. The picture would say otherwise and is reminiscent of the USS Enterprise fire which killed many servicemen and significant damage. (Not suggesting this is the Enterprise)
Scouring the Indian press, there is virtually no picture evidence.

Nick C
Nick C
4 years ago
Reply to  The Big Man

It is almost certainly not the fire in question. The report says one death from the effects of smoke, and that the fire was in a compartment. So only smoke is going to show as it is vented out. The other point to look at is the number of other, obviously merchant vessels, anchored around the ship on fire. I would bet that it is a picture of a fire on a merchant ship, in the deck cargo, and probably off Mumbai or another Indian port.

Cam
Cam
4 years ago
Reply to  The Big Man

That’s probably an Indian nuclear submarine on fire in the picture.

The Big Man
The Big Man
4 years ago
Reply to  The Big Man

Actually this is quite sloppy. The picture is of two fuel ships on fire in the Kirch Strait.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/ships-with-indian-crew-catch-fire-on-black-sea-14-dead/story-VL6odc4RIUVgsjNGV2vpJL.html

Bruce sellers
Bruce sellers
4 years ago
Reply to  The Big Man

That’s a disappointment that the photo is illustrative only, without saying as much?
Great news that the actual fire appears to have been on a far less dramatic level- not withstanding the obvious tragedy for the sailor who lost his life.