Explosion and fire hit Singapore-flagged container ship off southern Indian coast
NEW DELHI (AP) — An explosion and subsequent fire were reported onboard a Singapore-flagged container ship off the coast of Kerala in southern India on Monday, a spokesperson for the Indian Coast Guard said.
Of the 22 crew members onboard the MV Wan Hai 503, 18 abandoned the vessel with assistance from the Indian Navy and Coast Guard while four are missing, Commandant Amit Uniyal said in a statement.
One of the rescued crew members sustained serious injuries. Two of the four missing are nationals of Taiwan, one is from Indonesia and one from Myanmar, Uniyal said.
The navy and coast guard have launched a search operation for the missing, aided by a Dornier aircraft. The navy uses Dornier aircraft primarily for maritime surveillance, search and rescue operations. A number of ships have also been sent to help put out the fire some 88 nautical miles from the coast of Beypore in Kerala.
'The vessel is presently adrift, and firefighting efforts have commenced to bring the situation under control,' said Uniyal. 'Saving lives of the crew in distress, firefighting and mitigating environment hazard remains the priority for coast guard.'
He said they were working to establish the details of the ship's cargo and any potential risks it could cause.
The 890-foot vessel left the Sri Lankan port of Colombo on June 7 and was set to arrive in Mumbai, India on Monday.
The coast guard received a distress alert from the ship Monday morning reporting an explosion and subsequent fire inside one of the containers onboard. The fire later spread to other containers.
The coast guard has not yet given the cause of the explosion and fire.
The vessel is managed by Singapore-based Wan Hai Lines, according to a statement from Singaporean authorities.
Late last month, a Liberia-flagged MSC ELSA 3 container ship sailing between the Indian ports of Vizhinjam and Kochi sank about 38 nautical miles off Kerala. The state government issued a high alert in its coastal areas and asked fishermen not to venture near the site where the container ship, which carried hazardous cargo, had sunk.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
6 people killed in crash of small aircraft off San Diego, FAA says
Air travel safety Airplane crashes Federal agenciesFacebookTweetLink Follow Six people were killed when a small plane crashed into the ocean off San Diego on Sunday afternoon, the Federal Aviation Administration said Monday. The final moments before the twin-engine Cessna crash – which triggered a major search of the Pacific Ocean near San Diego – are captured in an air traffic control audio recording from 'Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!' the pilot of the Cessna 414 can be heard shouting on the recording only five minutes after taking off from San Diego International Airport. The pilot and five passengers were killed when the plane crashed into the water 'under unknown circumstances,' the FAA told CNN. The United States Coast Guard is now searching a debris field. An urgent exchange is heard on the audiotape as the pilot tells an air traffic controller he is struggling to maintain a heading. 'What seems to be the issue?' the air traffic controller can be heard asking 'Just struggling right now to maintain heading … and climb,' the pilot replied. The controller from the Southern California Terminal Radar Approach Control advised the pilot to land at nearby Naval Air Station North Island. Flight tracking data shows the plane taking off at 12:25 p.m. local time bound for Phoenix. In the five minutes that followed, the plane reached a maximum altitude of only 2,100 feet before making two turns to the left, according to open-source data from ADS-B Exchange. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash. This is a developing story and will be updated.
an hour ago
Small plane carrying six people crashes off the San Diego coast
Authorities were investigating Monday after a small plane carrying six people crashed off the San Diego coast. The twin-engine Cessna 414 crashed at around 12:30 p.m. Sunday, not long after it took off, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The plane was bound for Phoenix, according to the flight tracking website Searchers found a debris field later Sunday about 5 miles (8 kilometers) off the coast of Point Loma, a San Diego neighborhood that juts into the Pacific, U.S. Coast Guard officials. The water in the search area is about 200 feet (61 meters) deep. The Coast Guard said in its initial news release Sunday that it was searching for the six people on board, whom it didn't identify. A man who was out surfing when the plane crashed told NBC 7 in San Diego that he saw the plane come down at an angle, then climb back into the clouds before diving again and crashing into the water. 'The next time he came out of the clouds, he went straight into the water. But after I saw this splash, about six seconds later, it was dead silent. I knew that they went in the water, nose first, at a high speed," Tyson Wislofsky said.
Chicago Tribune
2 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Small plane carrying six crashes off the coast of Sunset Cliffs
A small plane with six people aboard crashed into the ocean about 3 miles off Sunset Cliffs Sunday afternoon, prompting a search involving several agencies. The Coast Guard received the report at 12:50 p.m. and began searching the debris field with several assets, including a Jayhawk helicopter, a C-27 airplane, the Cutter Sea Otter and two smaller boats, said Petty Officer Charlie Valor. None of the people believed to be on board had been found by early evening as the search continued, Coast Guard officials said. The plane was a Cessna 414, which is a pressurized, twin-engine aircraft designed to carry six to eight passengers, according to officials. San Diego lifeguards initially assisted with the search, then were called off after it became clear the plane went down in water that is probably 200 feet deep or more, a spokesperson said. 'The U.S. Coast Guard alerted San Diego fire department lifeguards after receiving reports from vessels of a large splash approximately three miles off Sunset Cliffs,' said Candace Hadley, a spokesperson for San Diego Fire-Rescue. 'Lifeguards responded with several rescue vessels (boats and some personal watercraft), who located an oil sheen and some debris on the water,' Hadley said. She said lifeguards requested additional support from the Coast Guard because of the depth of the water being searched. The Coast Guard has since assumed responsibility for search, rescue and recovery operations. 'Initial debris recovered by lifeguards have been turned over to Coast Guard authorities. Our Triton vessel is currently on standby in case there is any additional need for assistance,' she said. The high-performance Triton is equipped with hoses and can be used to fight fires. This is the second private plane to crash in the San Diego area in the past 2 1/2 weeks. On May 22, a Cessna 550 Citation II jet crashed into a Murphy Canyon neighborhood, damaging a four-plex in the military housing area and setting 20 vehicles on fire. Six people on board the jet — the pilot and five passengers — were killed in the crash. Miraculously, only a few people suffered minor injuries on the ground. The FAA and NTSB are investigating the cause of that crash. Officials noted the plane was heading to Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport in Kearny Mesa on a foggy evening when the plane clipped a transmission line about 120 feet in the air. In that incident, the plane had departed from Teterboro, N.J., then stopped in Wichita, Kan., before heading on to San Diego. With Sunday's crash, it was not immediately clear where the plane had taken off from or its intended destination.
