Four sailors still missing, stranded vessel to be towed away

Chennai:

Four sailors of Pratibha Cauvery, which ran aground prior to Cyclone Nilam on Chennai Coast, are still missing as Coastguard on Friday morning recovered a body of the sailor.

With the recovery of the body, the toll in the ship tragedy has gone to two. He was among the 22 sailors who tried to reach ashore when Cyclone Nilam struck Chennai Coast. Only 17 made it to the shore. One died before being taken to hospital. Four are still missing.

Union Shipping Minister G K Vasan, who visited site of the stranded ship on said that around 6.30am Thursday, 15 people stranded on board the vessel were safely rescued by two coastguard helicopters.  

He also said that the stranded ship would be towed away by Emergency Tow Vessel from Mumbai in one or two days. The vessel is a multi purpose boat used to tow disabled vessels on high seas in order to prevent dangers to man and environment.

The minister also thanked the fishermen, Indian Navy and Coastguard for saving the lives of the fishermen. He also visited the rescued crewmembers and the relatives of the missing crew at Fortis Malar Hospital.

Meanwhile, sources said all the 15 sailors rescued by Coastguard are in good health and they were taken to Fortis Malar Hospital and kept along with 16 rescued sailors in the seventh floor of the hospital.

Costguard said they launched a massive search operation to search and locate five missing crew of the vessel. It also deployed its vessels Rani Abbaka, Rajtarang, Priyadarshini and two CG Dorenier aircraft were also tasked to augment the air sea coordinated search operations for ascertaining presence of any vessel in distress along the coasts of Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu after the cyclone.

A senior Coastguard official blamed the captain for sending the distress signal at around 4pm. “We got the distress signal after 4pm. It was the around that period when Cyclone Nilam had a landfall. We did not want to create multiple situation,” said a top coastguard official. Local fishermen allege the coastguard came around 6.30 pm by which time a sizeable number of 17 member crew were rescued.

Even a senior Indian Navy official said that ship’s Captain did not heed to the instructions of not letting the crew to enter the water. “Those who stayed did not face any problem,” he said.

Meanwhile, at Fortis Malar hospital the rescued sailors were not allowed to interact with anyone. A hospital official said that an enquiry was going on. Several senior officials, including Chennai Police Commissioner S George, Chennai Port Trust chairman Atulya Mishra and other officials visited the hospital. It was only around 4pm, they were allowed to interact with journalists.