CANBERRA, May 18 (NNN-AAP) – The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA)’s spokesperson, said yesterday that, they were coordinating the search for a Chinese fishing vessel, in a remote location in the Indian Ocean.
The location is about 5,000 km north-west of Perth, the capital city of Western Australia (WA).
A Chinese deep-sea fishing vessel capsized on Tuesday, in the central Indian Ocean, which has so far left 39 people on board missing, including 17 Chinese, 17 Indonesian and five Philippine mariners.
China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and the Ministry of Transport and Shandong Province, activated emergency response mechanism to organise the rescue work.
An AMSA spokesperson, said yesterday that, a distress beacon signal was received by AMSA from the fishing vessel, at about 5:30 a.m. (AEST) Tuesday morning.
The spokesperson said that, late Tuesday, bulk carrier Navios Taurus sighted an upturned hull in the search area. No survivors have been found as yet.
AMSA requested the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to provide a search asset, and the ADF tasked a P-8A Poseidon aircraft, to assist with the long-range search on Tuesday night, along with a number of merchant and other vessels in the area.
“Weather conditions yesterday were extreme with 120 km winds and seven-metre seas. Conditions have abated today with 40-50 km/h winds and 2-3 metre seas,” an AMSA spokesperson said yesterday.
“The search for survivors continues today with merchant and fishing vessels in the area.”
“The Australian Defence Force aircraft will return to the search area today, after refueling overnight, along with AMSA’s Perth-based Challenger rescue aircraft and a privately operated aircraft from Perth.”
The spokesperson said that, the AMSA Challenger aircraft will drop a buoy, to assist with drift modelling, to help in the search.
The Chinese Embassy in Australia said yesterday that, the embassy had immediately activated the consular protection and emergency response mechanism, and communicated and coordinated with Australian departments, to carry out search and rescue work.
So far, the Australian authorities have tasked three aircraft in full search and rescue. At the same time, four ships are searching in the sea area, where the incident occurred, said the embassy, adding that, it will continue to seek help from relevant Australian authorities, to carry out rescue operations.– NNN-AAP
