The Sri Lanka Navy has raised Fast Attack Craft P 4447 from the seabed off Angulana and towed it to the Colombo Dockyard, closing a salvage operation that ran for nearly a month after the vessel sank on a routine patrol.
The craft was brought to the surface on September 11 from a depth of approximately 80 feet and later towed to the dockyard for repairs, the Daily Mirror reported. Hiru News carried the same account.
A two-phase operation
The Navy divided the response into two phases. The first was a search-and-rescue phase that ended on September 4 with the recovery of the remains of the officer missing since the sinking. Only then did the second phase — raising the vessel itself — begin.
Diving and salvage teams worked in poor underwater visibility and rough seas, lifting the craft in stages under standard safety protocols. Marine engineering, hull, electrical and electronic engineering units took part alongside the divers, and the Navy credited technical and engineering support from the Sri Lanka Ports Authority and Colombo Dockyard PLC with helping the operation succeed.
The Navy described the recovery as a significant achievement and pointed to the professionalism of the divers and engineers involved.
The missing officer was the vessel’s second-in-command
Both reports identify the officer whose remains were recovered on September 4 as the craft’s Second in Command — the first time a role has been attached to him in any filing. When the remains were brought up, no newsroom gave his name or rank, and the Navy has still not published them.
This corrects the August account
The craft was reported recovered in mid-August. Ada Derana said on the evening of August 16 that the Navy had successfully brought the vessel up after an operation lasting several hours, and NewsFirst later described divers as having salvaged it in the early hours of that day, with only the tow to Colombo still outstanding.
Sunday’s reports place the lift almost four weeks later, on September 11. On this account the August operations located and worked on the wreck but did not raise it, and the vessel sat on the seabed until the search for the missing officer had been completed. No outlet has acknowledged the earlier reporting or corrected it.
What happened on August 15
P 4447 ran into distress at around 11.40 a.m. on August 15, roughly three nautical miles off the Angulana coast in Moratuwa, while returning from a patrol. Twelve personnel were aboard.
Eleven were rescued in a joint operation by the Navy, the Sri Lanka Air Force, the Police and local Angulana fishermen. The Navy Commander later held two ceremonies honouring those who helped — one for 14 civilians, and a second for ten Angulana police officers.
Cause still not established
Neither report says what caused the sinking. A board of inquiry was appointed within a day of the accident, and preliminary accounts from the rescued crew suggested the craft may have struck a submerged wreck — a line of inquiry that pointed to the MV Thermopylae Sierra, a Cyprus-flagged merchant vessel abandoned off Panadura since 2009. That remains unconfirmed.
Not reported
Neither outlet says when the board of inquiry is due to report, what the damage to the craft amounts to, whether P 4447 can be returned to service or at what cost, or why the August reports of a successful recovery were not corrected.
