Sri Vijaya Puram, Aug 24: Two crew members have been rescued after a Panama-flagged cargo vessel carrying 24 people sank in the Bay of Bengal, while Indian Navy and Coast Guard teams continued searching for the remaining 22 crew members, officials said on Sunday.
The vessel, MV Ocean-Winner, sank on Saturday about 240 nautical miles off the Odisha coast, triggering a search-and-rescue operation involving Indian maritime authorities and commercial vessels operating nearby.
The ship had sailed from Paradip Port at around 10.30 pm on August 20 carrying about 1,700 tonnes of iron ore and was bound for Singapore. Its crew comprised 20 Chinese nationals, three Myanmar nationals and one Bangladeshi national. The vessel was carrying iron ore loaded in Odisha.
The Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Sri Vijaya Puram received a distress alert at 11.48 am on August 22 after contact with the vessel was lost. Victory Star Group Co. Ltd, which operates the ship, requested search-and-rescue assistance.
The vessel’s last known position was reported near 317 East Island Light, about 310 nautical miles away. Following the alert, the MRCC activated the Indian Search and Rescue network and began coordinating the response.
An Indian Navy P8I aircraft, operating from a surveillance sortie, was redeployed for the search-and-rescue mission in coordination with the MRCC. The aircraft located a geographically dispersed liferaft in the search area and coordinated with MT AISOPOS, a merchant vessel transiting nearby.
MT AISOPOS was diverted to assist in the operation and recovered two crew members from two separate liferafts at around 8 pm on August 22.
The Indian Navy and Coast Guard subsequently continued their coordinated search for the remaining crew members. Coast Guard vessels ICGS Varad and ICGS Anmol were deployed, while ICGS Vijit sailed from Sri Vijaya Puram to reinforce the operation.
Authorities also alerted other ships in the vicinity and requested assistance in locating additional survivors and liferafts.
The Eastern Naval Command said the Navy was maintaining close coordination with the Indian Coast Guard as the search continued.
The cause of the vessel’s sinking has not yet been established and remains under investigation.
The rescue operation follows the loss of contact with the vessel on August 22 and the subsequent activation of India’s maritime search-and-rescue network. Further updates on the search for the 22 missing crew members and the condition of the two survivors are awaited.
