Russian Trawler Sinks with 54 Dead
At least 54 people died when a Russian trawler sank off the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s Far East, media reports say.
The Dalniy Vostok sank in the Sea of Okhotsk, 330 km (205 miles) west of Krutogorovsky settlement in the Kamchatka region and 250 km south of the city of Magadan.
"Drifting ice may have torn a hole in the vessel," the BBC reported, citing Russian emergency services. Water flooded the engine compartment and the freezer trawler sank within 15 minutes, the BBC said
“The ship did not send a distress signal,” the source said.
The trawler was a Russian vessel with a crew consisting of 78 Russians and 54 others from Myanmar, Ukraine, Lithuania and Vanuatu.
Rescuers have picked up 54 bodies and rescued 63 people, a source in the emergency services told the agency. Another 15 people are listed as missing. They were believed to have been in the ship’s hold when it sank.
Twenty-six fishing vessels were taking part in the search, the report said. An MI-8 rescue helicopter with four rescuers and medics on board was also deployed, according to local authorities, to search for survivors. However, the chances of survival in near-freezing waters after more than 20 minutes are nearly impossible, even wearing a wetsuit, rescuers say.
The home port of the trawler, which was owned by Magellan LLC, was Nevelsk in Russia’s Sakhalin region.
