22 out of 23 sailors are still missing
Nguyen Anh Vu, General Director of the Vietnam Maritime Search and Rescue Co-ordination Center (MRCC), said that by January 3, there was no more trace of the 22 missing sailors. Dau Ngoc Hung, the only survival, was on the London Courage ship, which was heading to Singapore. The ship is scheduled to land Singapore today, January 4.
Vu said that Filipino search and rescue agency agreed to join Vietnam in searching for missing sailors. The information about Vinaline Queen and missing sailors has been transmitted to the authorities of hundreds of small islands in northern Luzon.
Representatives of families of missing sailors on January 3 sent a petition to the National Committee for Search and Rescue, asking the agency takes every measure and vehicle to continue searching for the missing.
Besides planes, families proposed the agency to mobilize other means of transport and expand the search to uninhabited and small islands around the area where the Vinalines Queen was sunken.
They also expected to have the assistance from Japanese search and rescue agency because this force has modern equipment.
Major General Pham Hoai Giang, Chief of the Search and Rescue Agency of the Ministry of Defense cum Chief of the National Committee for Search and Rescue’s Office, told representatives that the committee is determined to search and rescue missing sailors at any cost.
The committee has also asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to call for help from the Philippines, Taiwan, Japan and China to search for Vietnamese sailors.
Developments of Vinalines Queen case
The Vinalines Queen with 23 sailors transported 54,400 tons of Nickel ore from Indonesia to China, in normal technical conditions.
At 5.48am, December 25, the ship reported to be leaned by 20 degree to the left in strong wind, without clear reason. The captain changed the direction to a safe area near the Philippines.
One hour later, the ship reported to be leaned by 18 degree to the left and it was running to the shore of Philippines. After that it lost contact with the mainland.
According to the only survival, Dau Ngoc Hung, the ship was sunken several minutes later due to rough waves and lean.
Information about the lost ship was released on the afternoon of December 26. Taiwanese sent rescue workers twice to the site of accident to but they failed to work because of strong wind and waves.
On the afternoon of December 27, the Japanese Coastal Guarding Agency discovered oil streaks near the site where the Vinalines Queen reported the last time.
On the morning of December 28, helicopters of the Japanese Coastal Guarding Agency flew for over three over this area but they only saw oil streaks.
On December 29, search by helicopter stopped. Many experts said that the ship was sunken due to a huge amount of nickel ore absorbing the sea water and causing an imbalance for the ship in bad weather.
In the morning of December 30, sailor Dau Ngoc Hung was rescued by a British vessel. 22 other sailors are still missing.
Source: VietNamNet