Aircraft P8I locates injured Navy officer Abhilash Tomy’s yacht in Indian Ocean

New Delhi, Sep 23: The Indian Navy's P8I aircraft P8i took off this morning for locating Abhilash Tomy and located him and his boat Thuriya in the Southern Indian Ocean. Navy officer and Golden Globe Race skipper Abhilash Tomy had earlier dismasted in extremely rough weather and sea conditions.

"Commander Tomy responded by ping on EPIRB as the aircraft was flying over him," the spokesman said here.

Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) is a device which alerts rescue services in case of an accident at sea.

Tomy had on Saturday managed to get in touch with 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'.

Tomy, who became the first Indian to have circumnavigated the globe in 2013, is the only Indian participating in the race that involves a gruelling 30,000-mile solo circumnavigation of the globe.

His vessel is in the south Indian Ocean, about 1,900 nautical miles from Perth in Australia

Tomy's vessel was dismasted in extremely rough weather and sea conditions, with wind speeds of 130 kmh. He was in third position in the race and has sailed over 10,500 nautical miles in the last 84 days, since the race started on July 1.