Ball clay-laden cargo ship ran into trouble in rough seas off Thailnd coast
Eleven crew members of a Bangladeshi cargo ship went missing Thursday after their vessel tilted in the Andaman Sea, sparking a rescue mission.
MV Hope, which was carrying 5500 tonnes of ball clay and heading for Chittagong Port, ran into trouble early Thursday in rough sea, some 30 nautical miles off Phuket in southern Thailand, Md Shafiqul Islam, principal officer of Mercantile Marine Department (MMD) told The Daily Star.
As the ship started tilting, all the 17 crew members, hailing from Bangladesh, abandoned it with lifeboats fearing it might capsize, Islam said.
Due to the rough sea, the cargo goods got shifted to one side and it might have caused the ship to tilt, he added.
Rescuers from Thailand Navy, who immediately started rescue and search operation, rescued six crew members.
Eleven others who jumped into the sea with lifeboat remained missing till filling of the report as of 6:00pm, said Captain Mohiuddin Abdul Kadir, a representative of the ship owner’s P&I (Protection and Indemnity) Club that covers the ship’s liability.
The ship was still floating but remained in a dangerous condition, he added.
MV Hope left Port Lumut of Malaysia on July 2 with the cargo and was scheduled to reach Chittagong Port on July 8.
Source: The Daily Star