28 crew members of stricken Indian ship to abandon it

LD SHIP

Washington, Dec 21 (PTI) The 28 Indian crew members
onboard a crippled bulk cargo freighter were preparing to
abandon the ship in stormy seas and fierce winds as a rescue
vessel neared it.

The crew of the ship in distress APJ Suryavir, planned
to abandon the ship and board a rescue freighter expected to
arrive later Monday night, US Coast Guard officials said.
All the crew members were reported safe, with no
injuries among those on board and the ship was not taking on
water, the officials said.
A US Coast Guard C-130 Hercules plane overflew the
distressed ship to keep watch on the vessel which is adrift in
the stormy north Pacific about 870 kms south-west of Alaska's
Adak island.
The Coast Guard officials said that a private
commercial ship, the Maersk Altair, was heading towards the
stricken Indian ship.
The officials said that stormy weather had been
forecast for the next few days.
Suryavir was coming from China and possibly headed
towards Portland in the US when the engine of the 740-foot
almost empty freighter failed.
"There are 28 persons on board. The entire crew is
Indian. They are all safe as of now," Ray Dwyer, Command Duty
Officer at Rescue Coordinator Centre, US Coast Guard, Juneau,
Alaska, told PTI over phone.
"They have no cargo on board," he said, adding that
this makes the ship imbalanced. However, the ship has now put
sea water in its tanks to add some weight. PTI AKD
ANU


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