Cyclone Phailin: Crew of lost ship heading to China to arrive safely

Kolkata, Oct 13: A China-bound merchant vessel lost contact with the ground staff after Cyclone Phailin struck coastal Odisha on Saturday evening. The Crew members of this vessel - MV Bingo - has been located. All 20 crew members are reported to be safe.

Crew safe but vessel yet to be located

This sea vessel, carrying 8,000 tonnes of iron ore, had left for China from the Sagar anchorage in West Bengal on October 11. According to a Coast Guard official, the ship was last located 25 nautical miles south-southwest of Sagar, about 100 km from Kolkata.

But officials of the Kolkata Port Trust said that the crew had been last sighted on a lifeboat east, adding that the ship was feared to have sunk.

The crew was sighted on a lifeboat yesterday east of Sagar, 25km from the coast," KPT chairman RPS Kahlon told PTI.

A Dornier aircraft and a hovercraft belonging to the Coast Guard had been pressed into service to locate the ship which had sailed with 19 Chinese and one Indonesian crew member on board.

The crew are now being brought back to Haldia Port where they are expected to arrive by tomorrow evening. The vessel, though, is yet to be located.

Cyclonic storm Phailin had slammed India's east coast near Gopalpur in Odisha on Saturday, triggering heavy rains and strong winds with speeds reaching up to 200 km an hour.

With agency inputs

OneIndia News