Ship Fire on Kerch Strait: Kin anxious about TN engineer part of crew

Avinash is a crew member of one of the Tanzanian-flagged tankers which caught fire on Monday while LPG was being pumped from one tank to another on the Black sea near the Crimean Peninsula in Russia. The two ships had 31 crew members, of which, 14 were feared dead.

While six Indian sailors were found dead, six others were declared missing. One of the missing crew member was identified as A Avinash. Avinash, a BTech Marine Engineering graduate, joined the Nimbus Maritime Services Private Limited as a trainee and later joined the Tanzanian ship at Istanbul, a month ago. This was his maiden voyage.

His father, M Anand Sekar, a CRPF personnel posted at Tata Nagar, Jharkhand, rushed home after hearing his son’s news.

When Avinash’s family contacted officials of the company for which he worked, they were told that four people were still missing and that Avinash was among them. 

The family is said to have asked the company to deploy more helicopters for rescuing the missing crew. Avinash’s younger brother Akash is pursuing his engineering degree.