Asia-Pacific

Chinese ship, crew still missing

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-03 09:02

Outlook grim for survivors after mishap off ROK

Beijing - All the crew members aboard a Chinese fishing boat that sank after colliding with a cargo ship in the waters off the west coast of the Republic of Korea (ROK) on Wednesday remained missing despite a day-long search-and-rescue work by Chinese task force and ROK Coast Guard.

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On Thursday, the Rescue and Salvage Bureau of China's Ministry of Transport dispatched rescue teams with a helicopter and reconnaissance aircraft to the scene where the boat went down after crashing into the 1,200-ton ROK-owned cargo ship.

Both aircraft returned to their staging sites at around 6 pm, according to Lu Tian, an officer of the Rescue and Salvage Bureau.

After a half-day of searching, the rescue team pinpointed exact location where the boat sank and recovered two life vests.

There was no sign of the crew, however.

Lu Tian noted that, given prevailing weather conditions, it would be unlikely that any of the seamen would survive beyond 48 hours.

Consequently, "whether the bureau would send rescuers again tomorrow is uncertain," he added.

He Ying, consul general of the China's embassy to the ROK told China Daily that ROK Coast Guard officials were able to confirm that the sunken boat was, in fact, Chinese based on the characters visible on the flotation vests their own rescuers had recovered.

Since no other wreckage or bodies had been located by Thursday, according to officials, the identity of the boat itself remained a mystery.

Complicating the operation for Seoul's Coast Guard was the approaching Typhoon Kompasu, which hindered rescue efforts on Wednesday.

On Thursday, however, the ROK Coast Guard also dispatched two 3,000-ton ships, He Ying said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said on Thursday that "the collision was only an accident."

According to a report by Xinhua, the fishing boat was sunken by the 1,250-ton cargo ship, Ocean Ace No. 6, owned by ROK's HC freight company, in waters about 126 km (68 nautical miles) west of the Gyengnyelbi islet, South of ChungCheong province.