Cargo Ship Capsized Off Thailand.
As many as eleven crew members of a
Bangladeshi cargo ship went missing Thursday after their vessel capsized off
the coast of Phuket in southern Thailand, Thai officials have confirmed
according to local media.
The bodies of two crewmen recovered on Friday identified as chief Officer of the ship Mahbub Morshed, 45 and chief engineer Kazi Shifuddin, 52.
The ship, the MV Hope, was enroute to
the port of Chittagong in Bangladesh when it reportedly capsized early Thursday
in adverse weather conditions about 32 kilometers from Phuket’s coast, AFP
reports.
Six crewmembers were rescued by another
ship and a navy helicopter, but fears were mounting for 11 still missing after
a search Thursday, hampered by poor visibility, failed to locate the remaining
crew. The Royal Thai navy said the missing were in a lifeboat which was set
adrift by the high seas, the AFP report says.
Bangladesh’s Dhaka Tribune reported
Friday that three more were rescued alive, bringing total number of survivors
to nine. The report says that three bodies have been recovered and six remain missing.
There were 17 on board the ship when it
capsized.
A search continued Friday lead by the
Royal Thai Navy.
The MV Hope is owned by QC Shipping of
Bangladesh.
Bangladeshi cargo vessel MV Hope
capsized, with 17 crew on board, in heavy weather to the Andaman Sea south of
Phuket, Thailand. Very confusing information from the area said that a German
container ship, Buxmoon, took five survivors and one more crew member from a
Bangladeshi cargo ship was rescued when a Royal Thai Navy helicopter spotted him
in a life raft. Two bodies were found by searchers from the Royal Thai Navy
near the capsized vessel and two other were found alive in the area. Stay
connected for more information and pray for the missing #seafarers. (Photo:
Royal Thai Navy)
DHAKA:
Six crew members from a Bangladeshi cargo ship were still missing on Saturday
two days after their vessel capsized in the Andaman Sea on Thursday.
Abu
Bakar Siddique, who was rescued form the sea by Royal Thai Navy and now
undergoing treatment at Vachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket, identified the
bodies on Saturday.
The ship
had 17 officers and crew on board when it began to struggle in heavy seas that
repeatedly hit it side-on.
Five of
the 17 crew made it to one of the ship’s lifeboats and were later picked up
unharmed by a German container ship.
Four
more survivors were rescued and two bodies found from the sea on Thursday and
Friday as the Royal Thai Navy continued its search for the six crewmen who are still missing.
With
tears in his eyes, Mr Siddique told The Phuket News, a Thai news paper, the
Hope was labouring across fierce seas and heavy winds when the deck cargo began
to shift, causing the ship to list heavily to starboard
It
heeled over to the point where some of the cargo went overboard.
He said
that while some of the crew managed to scramble into one of the Hope’s
lifeboats, he and others simply leapt over the side, fearing that otherwise
they might be carried to the bottom by the sinking ship.
Kept
afloat by a life jacket, he waited for what seemed like hours for help to
arrive. It finally arrived in the reassuring shape of a Thai helicopter.
The
ship, which was heading for Bangladesh's port of Chittagong, ran into trouble
early Thursday in rough seas some 32 kilometres (20 miles) off an island near
Phuket in Thailand's south.
Phuket
is Thailand's biggest island and one of its most popular tourist destinations.
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