Around 9 am on Sunday, the family of Captain Ashish Kumar in Shikshak Nagar in Bihar’s Bettiah began seeing reports online about a drone attack on an oil tanker anchored in the Gulf of Oman. At the time, they did not immediately connect the news to him.“Everyone hopes for the best in such situations,” said his younger brother Akash Kumar. “When we first saw the reports on social media, we did not think that something like this could have happened to bhaiya.”By evening, however, details began to emerge, including the vessel’s identification number – “IMO No. 9330020”. That was when the family realised that the tanker mentioned in the reports, the MV Skylight, was the same ship on which Ashish had been serving as captain.“As soon as the vessel number was confirmed, we realised my brother was on that ship,” Akash said. For the next several hours, the family kept trying to reach him. Calls went unanswered. Messages remained undelivered or without reply.In maritime emergencies, families often expect some form of contact once rescue teams reach the vessel, Akash said, but none came. “We kept calling continuously. If he had managed to get out safely, he would have called us,” he said.With no response from Ashish, the family wrote to the Indian Embassy in Muscat, sharing the details they had gathered and seeking confirmation. The response brought the first official indication of the scale of the incident. According to Akash, the embassy confirmed that the information about the attack was correct and that three people were missing, including two Indian crew members.Also Read | Oil tanker with 15 Indian crew members hit off Oman coast amid Middle East tensions“One of them was my brother Ashish Kumar, who was serving as captain on the vessel. The other was Dilip Singh from Rajasthan,” he said.Story continues below this adAshish Kumar, 37, had spent about 16 years in the merchant navy. Hailing from West Champaran district, he was the eldest of three brothers. His father, Ashok Kumar, is a lawyer, while his mother, Sunita Devi, is a homemaker.“Bhaiya joined the shipping company in Dubai on January 20 this year and boarded the oil tanker Skylight on February 22,” Akash said. The vessel, flying the flag of Palau and owned by a Dubai-based company, was anchored about five nautical miles north of Khasab Port in Oman’s Musandam Governorate near the Strait of Hormuz when it was attacked on March 1. The tanker had a crew of 20 members – 15 Indians and five Iranians.Ashish had spoken to his family just days before the incident. His mother and wife, Anshu, last spoke to him on the night of February 28. By the next evening, his phone had been switched off.The family spent the next few days waiting for clarity. On March 2, the shipping company’s agent called them to confirm that the tanker had indeed been attacked and that rescue operations were underway, though he did not have specific information about the captain. While the ship was struck during Iran’s war with the US and Israel, authorities are yet to confirm who was responsible for the attack.Story continues below this adOman’s Maritime Security Centre later said in a statement that the tanker had been targeted near the Khasab coast and that crew members were evacuated. However, uncertainty remained about some of those who had been on board.Also Read | 25-yr-old from Diu among 3 Indians killed in attacks on vessels off Oman coastThe Indian Embassy in Oman later informed the family by email that when the vessel caught fire, eight Indians had been rescued by Omani authorities, while two — Captain Ashish Kumar and a crew member named Dilip — had been in the engine room and had not been found.Days passed without further clarity.Then, four days after the attack, the family received another update.Authorities had recovered bones from the captain’s cabin.The news of Ashish’s death reached the family late at night through an email from the authorities.Story continues below this adAccording to the communication shared with the family, the remains were found in a severely burnt condition. The message said that since no one else typically enters the captain’s cabin, the remains were most likely those of Ashish Kumar, though identification would require DNA testing.“The information that bones had been recovered from the captain’s cabin came on Thursday,” Anshu said, adding that DNA testing will be done for the official identification.Officials have informed the family that they might need to travel to Oman for DNA testing to identify the remains.“We are awaiting further communication from the authorities on how to move forward,” Anshu told The Indian Express.Story continues below this adThe family has requested the government’s assistance in completing the necessary procedures and bringing Ashish’s mortal remains back to India.Ashish is survived by his wife Anshu, their five-year-old son Daksh, who was supposed to start his schooling soon, his parents, two younger brothers, and a sister.