In a major incident on the high seas on Thursday morning, Indian maritime security agencies managed to save the lives of 30 crew members of a sinking cargo ship, 20 nautical miles off the Mumbai coast.
In a major incident on the high seas on Thursday morning, Indian maritime security agencies managed to save the lives of 30 crew members of a sinking cargo ship, 20 nautical miles off the Mumbai coast.
At around 7.25am, the Vessel Traffic Monitoring System (VTMS) received a distress call from a bulk carrier informing that there was flooding in the ship and it was sinking. The Panama-flagged bulk carrier, MV Rak Carrier, was coming from Indonesia and headed to Dahej port in Gujarat with around 60 metric tonnes of coal.
It had suffered damages to the front hold and water had entered the ship’s hull. VTMS alerted the Coast Guard’s western region headquarters, and a rescue operation was launched immediately.
“Pollution control vessel (PCV) Samudra Prahari was rushed to the spot, along with emergency towing vessel (ETV) Smit Lumba. Another ship, MV Stella, which was sailing off Mumbai coast, was asked to assist the operation,” said Coast Guard DIG Mukesh Purohit. He added: “Naval helicopter Sea King and Coast Guard chopper Chetal were also pressed into action.
The 30 crew members were rescued by them using the wind-chop mechanism. By the time the operation took off, half of the crew members had jumped off the ship. They were also rescued and taken aboard a Bahama-flagged vessel CMA CGM PUGET, which took them to INS Shikra.”
The operation was swift and precise — the 30 crew members were rescued within an hour of the SOS call. Both Sea King and Chetak carried out several sorties to airlift the crew and take it to another ship.
The crew comprises Romanian, Indonesian and Jordanian nationals. Officials from directorate general (shipping) will question them to ascertain if all safety measures had been taken, and that the ship did not sink due to human error.
The Qatar-based owners of ship, as well as its insurers, have been contacted. They will arrive in Mumbai soon, after which DG shipping officials will conduct further inquiries.
By Thursday afternoon, MV Rak Carrier had sunk completely. The Coast Guard thereafter issued an alert to mariners using the sea route about the submersed vessel.
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