Cyclone Tauktae: Chief Engineer says 14 life rafts had holes, Captain ignored warnings

Thursday, 20 May 2021Newsdesk

Everyone on board barge P305 could have been saved had many of the life rafts not had punctures and the Captain taken the cyclone warnings seriously, its Chief Engineer Rahman Shaikh, among the 187 men rescued from the vessel, told The Indian Express Wednesday.

New Delhi, 20 May2021

Admitted to Apollo Hospital in Tardeo on Wednesday evening with a wound on his knee, Shaikh, 48, said, “We received the cyclone warning a week before it hit. Many other vessels in the vicinity left. I told the Captain, Balwinder Singh, that we must also leave for the harbour. But he told me that winds were not expected to be over 40 kmph and the cyclone would cross Mumbai in one or two hours. But in reality the wind speed was more than 100 kmph. Five of our anchors broke. They couldn’t withstand the cyclone.”

Source -The Indian Express