Indian Navy Commander Abhilash Tomy rescued by French vessel after Golden Globe Race injury

Indian Navy Commander Abhilash Tomy was rescued from the Indian Ocean on Monday, three days after he suffered a severe injury when the main mast of his boat was ripped off in a storm, officials said. The Australian Rescue Coordination Centre at Canberra was coordinating the rescue mission in cooperation with many agencies, including the Australian Defence Department and the Indian Navy.

The Indian Navy deployed its P-8i surveillance aircraft to as part of the rescue mission, officials said. A French vessel, Osiris, was also deployed in the rescue mission. 

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Indian Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman took to Twitter after Abhilash Tomy was rescued from the Indian Ocean.

A sense of relief to know that naval officer @abhilashtomy is rescued by the French fishing vessel. He's concious and doing okay. The vessel will shift him to a nearby island (I'lle Amsterdam) by evening. INS Satpura will take him to Mauritius for medical attention. @PIB_India

— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) September 24, 2018

A sense of relief to know that naval officer @abhilashtomy is rescued by the French fishing vessel. He's concious and doing okay. The vessel will shift him to a nearby island (I'lle Amsterdam) by evening. INS Satpura will take him to Mauritius for medical attention, her tweet read.

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Tomy had suffered a back injury after his yacht was hit by a storm with 14-metre-high waves mid-way while participating in the Golden Globe Race across the south Indian Ocean. His vessel was located by an Indian Navy aircraft, a defence spokesman said on Sunday.

Tomy, on Sunday, managed to contact race organisers in France through messages and had requested for a stretcher as he could not move on his own. He was representing India in the Golden Globe Race 2018 (GGR) on an indigenously-built sailing vessel ‘S V Thuraya’. 

The Navy’s P8I aircraft, which flew from Mauritius in the early hours on Sunday, has located the “mast broken boat rolling excessively”, the spokesman said.

“Commander Tomy responded by ping on EPIRB as the aircraft was flying over him,” he said. 

(With PTI inputs)