Coast Guard brings 2 Chinese survivors of sunken cargo ship to Odisha, search on for missing crew
Indian Coast Guard ship Varad, deployed for a search and rescue operation after a Panama-flagged bulk carrier sank in the Bay of Bengal nearly a week ago, safely brought two Chinese survivors to Odisha’s Paradip on Thursday, an official said.
The merchant vessel MV Ocean Winner, carrying 24 crew members — 20 Chinese, three Myanmarese and one Bangladeshi — was heading to Singapore when it sank about 240 nautical miles from the Paradip coast on August 22.
The Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Sri Vijaya Puram immediately diverted MT Aisopos, a commercial vessel that was in the vicinity, to “search for the vessel or liferafts and render assistance”.
Two survivors were rescued that night.
“Indian Coast Guard ship Varad safely brought two Chinese survivors — Pan Tonglai and Chen Jianhe — to Paradip today. Rescued from a liferaft on August 22, both received medical care onboard during transit and have now been handed over to authorised company representatives in the presence of Bureau of Immigration and local police officials,” an ICG spokesperson said.
He said coordinated sea and air search operations are underway to locate the missing crew members.
MRCC, Sri Vijaya Puram, is continuously coordinating with all participating assets in the ongoing rescue efforts, the spokesperson added.
On Tuesday, the ICG said the search and rescue efforts for the missing crew members were being “further augmented in coordination with the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, Beijing”.
Additional Coast Guard assets and merchant vessels were being deployed and coordinated to intensify the search operation, the official had said.
On August 22, the ICG deployed three of its ships for the search and rescue operation. ICG ships Varad and Anmol were deployed for the rescue efforts, while Vijit was deployed from Sri Vijaya Puram to augment the operation. MV Ocean Winner’s last port of call was Paradip, and its next port of call was Singapore, the spokesperson said.
The ship was carrying iron ore from Odisha, officials had said earlier.
