The Sri Lanka Navy has recovered remains believed to be those of the officer missing since Fast Attack Craft P 4447 sank off Angulana on 15 August, ending a search that ran for twenty days.
Naval divers brought the remains up from inside the wreck on Friday morning, once sea and underwater conditions were judged safe enough for specialised diving operations, NewsFirst reported. Hiru News said the body was found inside the craft itself.
Why it took twenty days
The craft lies at a depth of roughly 80 feet, where underwater visibility is extremely poor, NewsFirst reported. Its confined internal compartments made the recovery particularly difficult for the divers.
The Daily Mirror reported that the vessel ran into distress and sank about three nautical miles off the Angulana coast, and that 11 of the 12 personnel aboard were rescued in the initial operation.
Repeated attempts at diving and salvage were turned back by rough seas. The Navy said it continuously reassessed conditions and deployed recovery teams only when it could do so without exposing divers to unacceptable risk.
In the intervening weeks the search extended well beyond the wreck site, covering surrounding sea areas and the coastline from Panadura through Colombo to Chilaw. The Navy worked with the Sri Lanka Air Force, Angulana Police, local fishing communities and other agencies — the same civilian effort the Navy Commander publicly commended in August.
“The craft was an asset to be recovered. The missing officer was a life to be found,” the Navy said, describing how it weighed the two operations against each other.
A submerged wreck is one line of inquiry
An expert panel has been appointed to establish what caused the loss of the craft and the disappearance of the officer. Among the matters under examination are preliminary accounts from the rescued crew suggesting the craft may have struck a submerged wreck in the area.
The Navy stressed that no conclusion on the cause will be reached until the investigation is complete. A board of inquiry was appointed within a day of the incident, and the accident was followed by a wider maritime security review.
The recovery closes the search and recovery phase. Identification procedures, a postmortem examination and other formalities will now be carried out.
A note on the wording
Reports at the time of the accident described the missing crew member as a sailor; all three outlets covering Friday’s recovery describe him as an officer. The Navy has not published his name or rank, and no outlet has reported them.
Not reported
None of the three reports gave the officer’s identity, said when the postmortem will be held, or indicated when the expert panel is due to report. Neither the vessel’s salvage status nor whether the wreck will be raised has been addressed.
