Sailor, 19, found hanging onboard aircraft carrier INS Vikrant

A 19-year-old sailor of the Indian Navy was found hanging onboard INS Vikrant on Thursday morning, Indian Navy said. The indigenous aircraft carrier is currently docked in Kochi, Kerala. Prime facie it appears to be a case of suicide, a report by ANI quoted Indian officials saying. A statutory Board of Inquiry has been ordered into the incident. The deceased sailor was unmarried and was a native of Muzaffarpur in Bihar. He was found hanging in one of the compartments of the aircraft carrier. The sailor was from the regular cadre and was not an Agniveer, a report by Hindustan Times quoted an official as saying. He joined the Indian Navy in 2021 and had been deployed on board INS Vikrant after the commissioning of aircraft carrier. The body of the sailor has been shifted to hospital for postmortem examination and the Harbour police have booked a case. As per a report by The New Indian Express, 29 Navy personnel have died by suicide. On 21 June, 2022, a 44-year-old Navy officer was found dead at Naval hospital in Kochi. He was Lieutenant Commander Santosh Kumar Patro, a native of Odisha. He was found dead hanging in the hospital bathroom. On 6 July, 2021, a 19-year-old Navy sailor was found dead at the C2 watchtower at Katribargh with a bullet injury. The victim Thushar Attri hailed from Tappal village, Jarailiya, Aligarh district of Uttar Pradesh. A 25-year-old electrical artificer and a native of Rajasthan, Roopa Ram, was found hanging inside a hanger at a naval aircraft yard at Kochi Naval base on 22 June, 2016. A collection of suicide prevention helpline numbers are available here. Please reach out if you or anyone you know is in need of support. The All-India helpline number is: 022-27546669