Two Navy personnel killed after helicopter hangar door collapses at Southern Naval Command base in Kochi

Two Navy personnel were killed after a door of a helicopter hangar collapsed at the Southern Naval Base in Kochi on Thursday, a defence spokesperson confirmed. “Two Navy personnel died of casualties caused due to an aircraft hangar collapse,” a spokesperson told PTI.

#NewsAlert | Helicopter hangar collapses in the southern naval command of Kochi, two sailors dead. | @shreyadhoundial with more details pic.twitter.com/SCi6UP6Tw5

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Naveen (28) and Ajeet Singh (29) were passing by when the door was “dislodged from its supporting rails above” and fell on them, it said. Initial reports had said the two were killed when the hangar collapsed on them. “Both the sailors were rushed in a critically injured state to the naval hospital, INHS Sanjivani, where despite best efforts of the doctors to resuscitate them, they succumbed to their injuries at about 9.40 am,” the statement said. A board of inquiry has been ordered into the cause of the accident, it said. Naveen, from Bhiwani district of Haryana, had joined the Indian Navy in 2008 and is survived by wife and two-year-old daughter. Ajeet Singh, belonging to Bharatpur district of Rajasthan, had joined the Navy a year later and leaves behind wife and five-year-old son, the statement added. In July, Hindustan Times reported that the Indian Navy is in the process create a new full-time post of inspector-general (safety) that will ensure safe operations at sea reducing the risk of accidents.