Odisha ship sinking : Coast Guard finds empty lifeboat, 22 sailors remain missing
The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and Navy have intensified the search for 22 sailors missing after a Panama-flagged cargo ship sank off the Odisha coast on Aug. 22, with rescuers locating the vessel's lifeboat and an emergency beacon, officials said Tuesday.
No missing sailor has been found so far.
The ICG said the search was expanded after a naval aircraft detected a distress transmission and guided the Coast Guard ship ICGS Varad to the reported location.
At around 7 a.m. Tuesday, ICGS Varad located a lifeboat from the sunken MV Ocean Winner. A boarding team inspected it but found no survivors.
The Coast Guard later recovered an emergency beacon from the area and confirmed that it was associated with MV Ocean Winner.
Search area expanded
The Coast Guard and Navy have expanded the search area, officials said, amid concerns that strong currents and waves may have carried the missing sailors away from the location where the ship sank.
Additional Coast Guard assets and merchant vessels operating in the area have also been brought into the search.
ICGS Varad is coordinating with merchant vessels in the area to conduct an extensive search for the missing crew.
The operation is being coordinated with the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Beijing.
Two sailors rescued
MV Ocean Winner had 24 crew members on board when it sank while carrying 72,000 tonnes of iron ore to China via Singapore.
Two crew members, both Chinese nationals, were rescued on Aug. 22 after they were found floating in liferafts.
The two survivors are currently receiving treatment aboard a Coast Guard rescue ship and are likely to be brought to Paradip, around 230 nautical miles from the Odisha coast, officials said.
The remaining 22 crew members have not been located.
Who was on board?
Of the 24 crew members, 20 were Chinese nationals. Three were from Myanmar and one was from Bangladesh.
The ship sank off the Odisha coast on Saturday, triggering a joint search and rescue operation involving the Coast Guard, Navy and merchant vessels in the area.
The discovery of the lifeboat and emergency beacon has provided search teams with fresh locations to investigate, but authorities have not reported any confirmed sighting of the missing sailors.
(Inputs from PTI)
