The incident took place at around 9 am on Thursday when the door of helicopter hanger collapsed. Injured sailors were rushed to the Navy hospital where they succumbed to their injuries.

In a freak accident, two naval sailors of Aviation electrical branch, were tragically killed when one of the helicopter hangar doors of the Indian Naval Air Squadron 322 collapsed at INS Garuda, Kochi on Thursday early morning.

Naveen, EAA3 and Ajeet Singh, EAAR3 were buried spot when the sliding hangar door dislodged from its supporting rails above and fell on top of the two sailors who were passing by.

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 0940 hrs.

According to senior naval officers, “When accidents like this happen, we take care to ensure that the victims are first taken to the hospital for treatment. In this case too, the efforts are on to see how they could be treated and saved.”

Naveen, EAA3 hails from Bhiwani Dist, Haryana and joined the Indian Navy on 25 Jan 08, while Ajeet Singh, EAAR3, hails from Bharatpur Dist, Rajasthan and joined Indian Navy in Jul 2009. He is survived by his wife Mrs Aarti and two year old daughter while Ajeet Singh is survived by his wife Mrs. Parvati and five year old son. A Board of Inquiry has been ordered into the cause of the accident.

According to police, the incident occurred around 10 am at the Southern Naval Command’s headquarters in Kochi.