The Indian Navy has ordered an internal inquiry after its speedboat “lost control” and crashed into a private ferry off the Mumbai coast on Wednesday, killing at least 13 people.

“An internal inquiry has been ordered into the incident and we are also cooperating with the ongoing police probe,” said a navy official on Thursday.

Two persons, including a seven-year-old, are still missing.

Mumbai police have registered a case against the navy craft driver at the Colaba
police station. The police said the sections invoked in the FIR included those related
to causing death by negligence, actions that endanger the personal safety or life of others, rash or negligent navigation of a vessel and acts of mischief that cause wrongful loss or damage to individuals or the public.

The Mumbai police on Thursday said the ferry, Neel Kamal, that capsized after being hit by a navy craft off the Gateway of India had a capacity of 90 passengers but had over 100 people on board.

Thirteen people, including navy personnel and two contractual naval employees, were killed.

The private ferry was heading from the Gateway of India to Elephanta Island, a popular tourist destination off the Mumbai coast.

According to the documents issued by the Maharashtra Maritime Board on the boat, the ferry had permission to carry 84 passengers and six crew members but was carrying over 100 people, a police officer said.

There were two German nationals and one Canadian on board the Neel Kamal at the time of the mid-sea collision and they had been rescued, the police said.

The police have so far recorded the statements of nine persons who were rescued by the navy, Coast Guard, Mumbai police and CISF teams. The identification of all the 13 bodies has been done, cops said.

The accident-hit naval craft is in the navy’s custody and the police will take custody of it whenever needed for the investigation. The mangled passenger ferry has been taken to Bhaucha Dhakka (a wharf near Dockyard Road) in south Mumbai, another official said.

Of the 113 people on board both vessels, 13 died and 99, including two injured persons, were rescued. There were six persons on board the navy craft, of which two survived.

A naval helicopter and boats of the navy and Coast Guard have been deployed to look for the two missing passengers. Eight boats, including those of the navy and the Coast Guard, have been deployed for the search-and-rescue operation, which continued on the second day on Thursday, the official said.

The missing passengers have been identified as Hansraj Bhati, 43, and Johan Mohammad Nisar Ahmed Pathan, 7, the police said.

“An Indian Navy craft lost control while undertaking engine trials at the Mumbai harbour due to engine malfunction. As a result, it collided with a passenger ferry which subsequently capsized,” a navy spokesperson said on Wednesday.