Thursday, April 2, 2015

AT LEAST 54 DEAD, 15 MISSING AFTER OVERLOADED RUSSIAN TRAWLER SINKS OFF KAMCHATKA



APRIL 2, 2015

MOSCOW 

 (Reuters) - At least 54 crew on a Russian fishing trawler died and 15 were missing after it sank in freezing waters off the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Western Pacific Ocean late on Wednesday, officials in the area said. 

Sixty-three of the 132 people on board the Dalniy Vostok were rescued with the sea's temperature near zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit), Viktor Klepikov, coordinating captain of the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky maritime rescue coordination center, told Reuters.

"The rescue operation is going on, we are still looking for 15 people," Klepikov said. "At this time we do not know what might have caused the tragedy."

Russia's TASS news agency cited a deputy head of the Kamchatka region as saying the crew might have violated safety rules by exceeding the capacity of cargo storage.

"According to preliminary information, the shipwreck occurred while hauling a 100-tonne fishing seine," TASS cited Sergei Khabarov as saying.

The Russian Interfax news agency cited an unidentified source at the region's rescue center as saying that large amounts of drifting ice might have damaged the body of the ship, which sank within 15 minutes.

Russia has a dismal air, road and water safety record, with negligence and corruption often the cause of accidents. In 2011, an aging, overcrowded tourist boat sank in Russia's Volga River, killing nearly 130 people in one of the worst post-Soviet ship disasters.

The trawler was carrying 78 Russian nationals, as well as 54 foreign nationals from Myanmar, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Vanuatu.

It sank in the Sea of Okhotsk, 330 km (205 miles) west of Krutogorovsky settlement in the Kamchatka region and 250 km (155 miles) south of the city of Magadan.

The home port of the trawler, which was owned by Magellan LLC, was Nevelsk in Russia's Sakhalin region.

 Source: Reuters.com


//-----------------//

RUSSIAN TRAWLER WITH 132 CREW SINKS, AT LEAST 54 DEAD

APRIL 2, 2015

MOSCOW (AP)

A Russian trawler sank in just 15 minutes in icy waters off Russia's Far Eastern coast early Thursday, killing at least 54 crew members, rescue workers said.

The massive trawler Dalny Vostok, with an international crew of 132, sank at about 4 a.m. local time (1800 GMT on Wednesday) in the Sea of Okhotsk off the Kamchatka Peninsula. It did not send distress signals prior to the sinking, the Interfax news agency said.

Emergency services in Kamchatka, citing the head of the rescue operation, said 63 crew members were rescued and the fate of the remaining 15 was unknown.



In this undated photo provided by Russian Emergency Situations Ministry, a Russian trawler, the same type as Dalny Vostok, is seen in an undisclosed location. The Russian freezer trawler Dalny Vostok with an international crew of 132 sank Thursday morning, April 2, 2015, in the Sea of Okhotsk off of the Kamchatka Peninsula, rescue workers said. (AP Photo/Russian Emergency Situations Ministry Press Service)

More than 26 fishing boats in the area helped to rescue the crew members, emergency services said in a statement on their website. The fishing boats also recovered 54 bodies.

No cause for the sinking was immediately given, but investigators said the ship sank in just 15 minutes and may have collided with drifting ice.

The Investigative Committee said in a statement that it is considering all theories but it is likely that the trawler hit "an object" floating in the sea.

The Russian Emergencies Ministry sent an Mi-8 helicopter with rescuers and doctors aboard to deliver medical assistance and transport rescued crew members to hospitals in the city of Magadan, the ministry said on its website. It also set up a telephone hotline for families of the crew.

Oleg Kozhemyako, acting governor of the Sakhalin region, told Russian television that rescuers spotted two life rafts, but had not yet reached them to check if anybody was on board.

Among the 132 crew members, 78 are from Russia, 42 from Myanmar and the rest from Latvia, Ukraine and Vanuatu.

Some 1,300 people were involved in the rescue operation, emergency services said.



In this undated photo provided by Russian Emergency Situations Ministry, a Russian trawler, the same type as Dalny Vostok, is seen in an undisclosed location. The Russian freezer trawler Dalny Vostok with an international crew of 132 sank Thursday morning, April 2, 2015, in the Sea of Okhotsk off of the Kamchatka Peninsula, rescue workers said. (AP Photo/Russian Emergency Situations Ministry Press Service)


Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk