Wrong gas led to blast on INS Ranvir, firm booked
Three sailors were killed and another 11 injured in the blast that took place in the destroyer’s air conditioning compartment
Police in Colaba have registered a case against officials of Ajay Airproducts, a gas supplier, for allegedly supplying a wrong refrigerant to the Indian Navy that resulted in a blast on board INS Ranvir in January 2022 at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai, officials aware of the matter said on Wednesday.
Three sailors were killed and another 11 injured in the blast that took place in the destroyer’s air conditioning compartment.
The officials of Ajay Air Products have been booked for supplying the flammable refrigerant R152 instead of a common refrigerant R22, HT has learnt. The case was registered on March 4 under sections 304A (causing death by negligence) and 437 (mischief with the intent to destroy or make unsafe a vessel) of the Indian Penal Code.
The incident took place on January 18, 2022, when the warship docked at the Naval Dockyard in Colaba. Police said the case was registered based on a report by the Board of Inquiry appointed by the navy to investigate the incident. It said the company was asked to supply refrigerant freon Hydrochlorofluorocarbon-22 (R-22, which is a non-combustible) gas. However, freon Hydrofluorocarbon152- R152, a flammable, technically incompatible gas that releases toxic fumes upon combustion, was found in the air-conditioner of the warship.
“Based on the report of the Board of Inquiry to understand how the incident took place on the 4,000-tonne warship, INS Ranvir, we have registered a case against officials and responsible persons of Ajay Air Products Pvt Ltd for supplying the gas that led to the death of the navy personnel and injured several of them, and also damaged the warship badly,” said Pravin Munde, DCP Zone I.
“There was negligence and laxity on the part of company officials,” he added.
INS Ranvir was then on a cross-coast operational deployment from the Visakhapatnam-based Eastern Naval Command since November 2021 and was due to return to its base port.
The complaint was lodged by Lieutenant Commander Sachin Kumar, 40, who was working in the engineering department on INS Ranvir at the time of the incident, said a police officer. Kumar told police that he was on board the warship and had heard a huge noise and saw smoke everywhere while he was in the engine room.
It was found that the blast had taken place under the junior sailors’ dining hall in the air-conditioning compartment. Three personnel — Master Chief Petty Officer (MCPO I) Krishan Kumar, MCPO II Surinder Kumar and MCPO II AK Singh -- were found burnt near the warship’s mess.
An MCPO I is equivalent to a Subedar Major in the army, while an MCPO II is equivalent to a Subedar.
The Board of Inquiry found that the explosion took place in the air conditioner compartment and the air conditioning plant had been under maintenance for two months. Before going for maintenance, they had made sure all the gas was transferred in the condenser and all valves of the condensers were shut. There was nothing that was kept in the air-conditioning compartment which could explode, the complaint said.
The Board of Inquiry took samples of the gas from the freon condenser. These were sent to Centre for Fire, Explosive and Environment Safety (CFEES), Delhi and Indian Institute of Technology, Powai, Bombay.
“They got the reports from both the institutes and were told that flammable gas R152 was present in the freon condenser. While Ajay Air Products Pvt Ltd was asked to supply R22 gas, they supplied R152 which led to the accident,” said a police officer.
The ship’s crew responded immediately and brought the situation under control at the time. Manned by a crew of 30 officers and 310 sailors, INS Ranvir was commissioned into the navy in April 1986.
The destroyer, built in erstwhile Soviet Union, has a length of 146 metres, beam of 15.8 metres and top speed of 30 knots. It is armed with a variety of weapons including surface-to-surface missiles, surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft guns and torpedoes.