The bodies of the three crew members of the Sanchi, the Iranian tanker that collided, exploded and sank off the coast of China earlier in January, have been identified, according to the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) as cited by Reuters.
The three men identified are Milad Aravi, Majid Naqian and Mohammad Kavousi, all of Iranian nationality, the agency reported. The government is now seeking to get the bodies back to Iran.
The ‘Sanchi’, operated by National Iranian Tanker Co, was sailing from Iran to South Korea, carrying 136,000 tonnes of condensate, when it collided with the ‘CF Crystal’, about 160 nautical miles off the coast, near Shanghai and the mouth of the Yangtze River Delta, and went ablaze in 6 January. After being on fire for more than a week, it suffered two explosions which led the vessel to sink.
The ship was carrying a total of 32 crew members, 30 Iranian and 2 Bangladeshi nationals, all of whom were reported missing. One body was recovered soon after the tragedy and brought to Shanghai for identification, while another two bodies were recovered by rescue teams on 13 January.
The remaining 29 people are still unaccounted for, but were also presumed dead, according to Iranian officials’ estimations, causing the government to declare a day of national mourning on 15 January.
The casualty also created a major environmental pollution in Chinese waters. The oil spill has created four separate slicks covering a total area of 100 square km (or 39 square miles), which is almost equivalent to the size of Paris. According to Greenpeace, the area of the sinking is a spawning ground for many species, such as the swordtip squid, as well as a migratory pathway for several marine mammals, such as humpback whales and gray whales.
The maritime authorities of China, Panama, Iran and Hong Kong signed an agreement on Thursday to jointly investigate the causes of the collision.
