Madurai

According to the sources, the fishermen found a suspicious object floating in the nearshore waters, about 100 metres of the coastal village, around 9 pm on Tuesday. They immediately alerted the Costal Security Group (CSG) in Rameswaram.

The fishermen sensed the object when it touched a boat that was venturing into the sea.

They initially thought it was a buoy, said Rameswaram CSG Inspector D Felix Suresh Peter.

However, after inspecting the object that was brought to the shore on Wednesday morning, the CSG personnel found it was a rocket propeller that was used in a space programme.

It was a used one with an empty magazine weighing about five hundred kilos. It could have been used during a launch of satellite during 2016, Peter added.

The grounded propeller had the scheduled date ‘24-10-2016’ and details such as ‘Brahmos’ –Idn: No: PSI –SITVC /BT -71 and PPT at 132 Ksc. Further, the CSG Inspector said the grounded propeller would be sent to ISRO scientists at Mahendragiri in Tirunelveli district.

He also added that they tried to contact ISRO scientists over the phone three times in vain. Hence, a formal letter would be forwarded to the ISRO station at Mahendragiri. As a safety measure, the retrieved propeller was kept in shore waters at about ten meters off the coast.

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