Tuoitrenews
Updated
: Wed, October 31, 2012,12:15 PM (GMT+0700)
The Vietnamese cargo
ship Saigon Queen, with a crew of 22 on board, sank off Sri Lanka yesterday.
Eighteen crewmembers have been rescued while the four others, including the
captain, remain missing, the Vietnam Maritime Search and Rescue Co-ordination
Center (MRCC) reported.
At 12:12 pm on October
30, the MRCC received emergency signals indicating a potentially hazardous
situation from the Saigon Queen while it was transporting wood products from
Myanmar to India.
The ship had rolled from side to side, causing the cargo on board to shift, forcing sailors to re-fasten the goods, the ship reported.
However, soon thereafter the MRCC lost all contact with the ship because of weather conditions in the area.
The MRCC then coordinated with the Vietnam Shipping Communications and Electronics Company (Vishipel) in releasing urgent messages calling for rescue efforts from the Sri Lankan search and rescue force, the US Coast Guard, India’s Chennai MRCC, and other ships that were operating nearby.
At 9:20 pm, rescuers from the Cyprus-flagged Pacific Skipper saved three crewmembers and maintained contact with 15 others who were adrift on their life rafts after the ship sank. All these people were rescued later.
Meanwhile, four other
crewmen, including captain Nguyen Minh Luan, 51, chief mechanic Hoang Van Ban,
58, Tran Van De, 54, a mechanic, and Pham Phu Huu, 27, a sailor, were reported
missing. Search efforts were commenced at once.
However, by last night
there had been no further information about the fate of the missing sailors.
Search and rescue activities are still underway.
Search and rescue activities are still underway.
The distressed ship is
nearly 103 meters long and about 17 meters wide, and has a tonnage of 6,500
DWT.
The ship is owned by the
Saigon Shipping Joint Stock Company and was built in 2006 by the Saigon
Shipbuilding Industry Co, an affiliate of the Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry
Corporation (Vinashin).
