Eleven
crew members of an Indian cargo ship were rescued in a sea-air
coordinated search and rescue operation by Indian Coast guard after
their cargo ship ITT Panther sank in North-East part of Bay of Bengal,
400km from Port Blair on Thursday.
The
11 crew members were stranded in the rough sea for at least 12 hours
after the vessel which left Kolkata on July 15 with a consignment of
container cargo and construction material failed to weather the rough
seas.
A
Coast Guard spokesman said that the vessel, which had 29 containers,
that included 500 metric tonnes of sand and 200 metric tonnes of Steel,
was to reach Port Blair on evening of July 20. However, the vessel
developed dangerous tilt due to shifting of cargo in rough monsoon
weather conditions on Thursday morning.
As the situation became critical, the crew raised distress alert and abandoned the vessel and took life rafts.
Hearing
the distress signal, the Coast guard launched the rescjue mission
launching its aircraft to locate the crew. It also sent in Indian Coast
guard vessels Rajkamal and Bhikaju Cama from Digli and Port Blair
respectively to rescue the crew.
The
aircraft located the crew and directed the ship to position for
effecting rescue. “All the crew were rescued by late afternoon and they
were provided medical attention and stabilised,” a Coast Guard spokesman
said.
The
rescue operation was undertaken by the Coast Guard vessels in an
inclement weather with waves rising as high as three to four metres.
The ship will arrive with all the rescued crew at Port Blair on July 21.
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