Tag: Search and Rescue Operations (SAR)

Hundreds more feared dead The accident happened in deep sea off mainland Tanzania on 10 September at around 1am.It started sinking in an area plagued with heavy currents in the swirling waters.The ferry, M.V. Spice Islanders, was heavily overloaded with 600 passengers with some refusing to board when it was leaving the mainland port of Dar es.Zanzibar Police Commissioner Mussa Alli Mussa said: "Some 260 passengers have so far been rescued."We have recovered several bodies but I can't give you the exact death toll at the moment because the situation is very volatile."Thousands of people massed on the docks of Stone Town on Zanzibar, an island near Pemba, waiting for news.One man was screaming that he had lost 25 members of his family, including his sisters, his wife and grandsons.Many of them said they were furious the ship had been allowed to leave port so overloaded.Rescuer Suleiman Amis, 32, said: "Many of us got here about 2.30 am this morning."We sent out some boats to search for the survivors, but we did not find them until very, very late."We have friends who we know took that boat and we want to go back out to find them as soon as ...

An overloaded boat capsized of the coast of Zanzibar An overloaded boat capsized of the coast of Zanzibar, killing at least 158 people. 521 people have been rescued.

Hopes of finding more survivors were fading following the capsizing of an overloaded passenger Rescue boats, helicopters and divers searched for any remaining survivors but hopes were fading fast of finding anyone alive in the submerged wreck.Zanzibar has vowed to punish those responsible for the overloading of the MV Spice islander ferry, which had more than 800 people on board. Nearly 200 perished when the vessel sank.Mohamed Aboud Mohamed, Zanzibar minister of state, told a news conference that the death toll was 197, with 619 survivors. The ferry was loaded with over 200 more people than it was licensed to carry."The government will take stern measures against those found responsible for this tragedy, in accordance with the country's laws and regulations," he said. "We will not spare anyone."The accident was the worst maritime disaster in the history of Zanzibar, Tanzania's semi-autonomous archipelago and popular tourist destination.In 1996, a Tanzanian ferry sank on Lake Victoria with as many as 1,000 aboard. Only 114 survived.The government charged the captain and eight officials with the murder of 615 people.The Spice Islander began its voyage in Tanzania's commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, where it was loaded with passengers, motor vehicles, bags of food and ...

221 rescued The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) reported on Sunday that 221 passengers and crew were rescued when their interisland ferry ran aground as it neared port in Cebu City in the Visayas.Among those rescued were several ranking government officials as well as Korean and Japanese tourists who were on board the fast craft "Weesam Express 8" on their way from the island province of Bohol to Cebu, said Commander Rolando Punzalan, the chief of the PCG station in Cebu.Punzalan said the ferry left Tagbilaran City in Bohol at 4:30pm on Saturday and was to arrive in Cebu City two hours later at 6:30pm.But 30 minutes before its expected arrival, Punzalan said the PCG received a distress signal from the captain who reported the ferry ran aground near Cebu's neighboring city of Talisay.Among the rescued passengers were Dr. Susana Madarieta, the regional head of the Department of Health; Efren Carreon, the regional chief of the National Economic and Development Authority; and Edward Villarta, the regional head of the National Bureau of Investigation.One of the passengers, who requested anonymity, complained the PCG craft and other vessels arrived late at the scene, resulting in a long delay in the rescue efforts that ...

She survived after falling overboard from a passenger ferry 20 miles off the of East Yorkshire The 23-year-old fell overboard from the Princess Seaways DFDS ferry, which was travelling from Newcastle to Ijmuiden, just after 8.30pm on Monday night.A Sea King rescue helicopter from RAF Leconfield was scrambled and the Scarborough and Filey lifeboat crews were put on standby, but it was the ferry' s own rescue craft which pulled the woman from the water.The crew reversed the ship's course and after 30 minutes in the water, the woman, of Welwyn Garden City, Herts., was brought back onto the boat before being winched on board the helicopter and flown to Scarborough Hospital, where she was checked for hypothermia and kept overnight before being released.Footage of the woman's amazing rescue from the North Sea was captured by the RAF Sea King helicopter.Flight Sergeant Rick Jones from RAF Search and Rescue said the woman was lucky to be alive."To survive the fall, the time in the water and for the ferry to find her and all the assets to be in one place to get one person out such a vast area of the North Sea, she was incredibly lucky," he said.A ...

They were drowned after they fell from a vessel in the Ionian sea The Greek coastguard yesterday said it rescued 11 migrants and recovered the bodies of another two who drowned after they fell from a vessel in the Ionian sea.The migrants were rescued some 80 nautical miles West off the island of Kefalonia after Greek authorities were notified by Italian counterparts on the vessel's location."Ten people, whose nationality is still unknown, as well as the bodies of two people have been collected and are on board a ship en route to Kefalonia," a Greek coastguard official said.An eleventh migrant was also rescued, but his injuries were deemed serious enough that a Super Puma helicopter taking part in the operation had to fly him immediately to Kefalonia.The gender of the deceased as well as where the migrants had come from and where they intended to go are not known yet."We will know more once the boat carrying the migrants arrives in Kefalonia, at around 8:OOpm (1700 GMT)," said the official.A search rescue operation is currently underway in the region.Source: AFP

The cargo ship suffered engine problems Thurso lifeboat crew was called outon Sundaymorning in gale-force conditions to go to the aid of a cargo vessel which had lost power to the west of the Pentland Firth and began drifting towards the north coast of Caithness.The RNLI lifeboat, The Taylors, launched at the request of Aberdeen coastguard at 4.20am in very poor weather conditions after the cargo vessel, Norholm, suffered engine problems four to five miles north west of Ushat Head.The 94-metre cargo vessel with seven people on board managed to regain 20 per cent power just after the lifeboats launch so set a course for Scrabster harbour while the lifeboat continued on its way towards the casualty in gale-force nine to storm-force 10 north-westerly winds, heavy rain and a five-metre swell.Having endured terrible weather and sea conditions, both vessels arrived in Thurso Bay around 6am where they still had to contend with a very heavy swell.Nearly an hour later the cargo vessel managed to make it safely alongside the pier at Scrabster.Source: John O'Groat Journal

All 300 passengers were rescued An evacuation of 300 passengers during a ferry fire emergency could have been a "major disaster", a rescued traveller says.Passengers on the Auckland-to-Waiheke ferry were rescued in the Hauraki Gulf last night from the single-hulled Jet Raider, known to commuters as the "Vomit Comet".Ferry company Fullers had put the passengers on the "spare boat" to free up its more comfortable craft for a charter.But the boat stopped between Motutapu and Motuihe islands after fire alarms sounded. Crew doused the engine room in foam and set the anchor.The StarFlyte ferry was nearby and was called upon to evacuate the passengers. It did so with no gangways between boats, forcing passengers to hop the gap from one to the other.Waiheke Island resident Hans Versluys, a 52-year-old television programmer, said: "If this had happened with a stronger nor'easter, it had the potential of being a major disaster - the Motuihe reef was quite close by."Jet Raider was notorious with regular ferry passengers who called it the "Tomb Raider" and the "Vomit Comet", he said."They haven't bought a new ferry for ages now."Waiheke resident Kevin White said StarFlyte pulled up next to Jet Raider shortly after he heard an ...

The vessel was drifting due to technical snag in the engine The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) has rescued six crew members on board an Oman vessel Sakar-7, about 160 nautical miles (NM) off Porbandar coast in the Arabian sea.The incident took place when the vessel that was drifting for last 11 days due to technical snag in the engine, entered into Indian territory and was spotted by Coast Guard aircraft on routine patrol in Arabian sea, an official release said.After the ICG aircraft sighted the vessel adrift about 162 NM south west of Porbandar on August 19, it sent an investigation call to it, which was responded in a suspicious manner, the release said. ICGS Vijit, which was patrolling close to Dwarka, was diverted towards the suspected vessel, while the Coast Guard aircraft continued surveillance on the vessel, and merchant ships transiting through the area were cautioned about the vessel.The Coast Guard officers from Vijit took control of the ship on August 20 and interrogated all the six crew members on board the vessel of Sultanate of Oman. "It was found that the vessel Sakar-7 of Sultanate of Oman with six crew on board (one Oman and five Yemen) was ...

Coast Guard officials rescued as many as 30 crewmembers from MV RAK On Thursday morning, Coast Guard officials rescued as many as 30 crewmembers from the cargo vessel MV RAK, even as 3/4th of the 225 meter-long vessel had sunk into the choppy waters of the Arabian Sea. MV Rak was carrying 60,054 meteric tonne of coal.Toral Varia, brings you a blow-by-blow account of the rescue operation. The first SOS call was made at 7.25 hours on Thursday by a crewmember of the Panama-registered bulk vessel MV RAK, relaying a call sign 3FYL7 to the Vessel Traffic Management Service."Please help us! Our boat is sinking!"Co-ordinates of the vessel at the time of the call was approximately 20 nautical miles from Mumbai near 248 Prongs Light. The ship, which started off from Lubak Tutung port, Indonesia and was on its way to Dahej in Gujarat.The call was received by the Coast Guard Ops Centre in Mumbai and immediately a search and rescue op was launched. The centre communicated the distress to the Indian Navy and simultaneously launched two HELO choppers from Coast Guard base INS Shikra at 8:15 hours and 8:30 hours respectively.They diverted the Coast Guard pollution control vessel CGS ...