Who was Aditya Sharma? Indian sailor whose father sought MEA's help before his death aboard MT Settebello

Aditya Sharma, a young deck cadet from Himachal Pradesh, was killed when US military forces struck the commercial oil tanker MT Settebello in the Gulf of Oman. He was among three Indian seafarers — along with engine fitter Shivanand Chaurasiya and chief engineer Patnala Suresh — who were initially reported missing after the attack and were later confirmed dead by Indian authorities.

Sharma was serving as a deck cadet—an apprentice training to become a licensed ship officer—on the Palau-flagged vessel. The Settebello, manned by an all-Indian crew of 24, was intercepted by US Central Command (Centcom) forces 20 nautical miles off the coast of Oman. Accusing the tanker of transporting Iranian oil in defiance of a US blockade, American aircraft targeted the ship's engine room with precision munitions.

More from India

The resulting explosion and fire claimed the lives Sharma, Chaurasiya, and Suresh. 

Speaking to CNN-News18, Aditya Sharma's father, Rajesh Sharma, said he had last spoken to his son on the phone on Sunday. He recalled being in Jalandhar when news of the attack first emerged.

"Aditya left from Dubai for China via Singapore on November 27. Last month, he told me the ship was heading towards Oman. A day later, he mentioned that the captain was planning to enter the Gulf region, which made me a little sceptical," Sharma said.

He added that he was not initially worried because commercial vessels are generally not targeted. "Such ships are not attacked, so I wasn't concerned. What happened was completely unexpected. This was wrong," he said.

Sharma said local administration officials had been in touch with the family and appealed to Union ministers Anurag Thakur and S. Jaishankar to help bring back his son's mortal remains.

"I request that my son's mortal remains be brought home. I appeal to Anurag Thakur ji and Jaishankar ji to help us," he said.

Rajesh Sharma also revealed that he used to track the vessel's movements and had occasionally noticed discrepancies in its location data. "Sometimes the navigation system showed older locations. My son told me that the tracking device was switched off at times," he said.

A desperate father's appeal

Following the initial, chaotic reports of the attack, which originally listed Aditya as missing, his father made a frantic appeal to the Indian Government and the Ministry of External Affairs.

Speaking to local representatives and attempting to establish a line of communication with the MEA, his father urged officials to deploy every available resource to find his son. At the time of his appeal, the family was clinging to the hope that Aditya had escaped into the water or was among the 21 crew members rescued by the Omani Navy.

The family, supported by local community leaders in Himachal Pradesh, is now urging the MEA to expedite the repatriation of Aditya's remains from Oman so that his final rites can be performed at home.

The Forward Seamen’s Union of India (FSUI) General Secretary Manoj Yadav strongly alleged that US naval forces were "101 per cent certain" of the crew's Indian nationality prior to the attack.

Yadav told news agency ANI that if the vessel had failed to follow instructions, detaining the ship would have been a viable alternative to lethal force. Meanwhile, India's Ministry of External Affairs confirmed that 21 of the 24 Indian crew members have been safely rescued.