Strong winds fan fire on board Wan Hai; vessel at safe distance from Kochi
KOCHI: Wan Hai 503, the burning container vessel which was drifting towards Kochi coast, was pulled back to a safe distance by the Indian Coast Guard with support from the Indian Navy and the salvage team. The vessel which drifted to a distance of 27 nautical miles from Kochi coast on Friday night was pulled back to deeper sea. The vessel was located around 40 nautical miles from Kochi on Saturday evening. Though the fire on board the vessel was extinguished on Friday, it got reignited due to heavy monsoon winds on Saturday.
'The sea is very rough and the tugs currently deployed are not able to pull the vessel to deep sea. So a 200-tonne bollard tug will be brought on Sunday to pull the vessel to the deep sea. Currently, two tugs are holding the vessel using towlines to stop it from drifting to the Kerala coast. The vessel listed to the port side after some containers kept on the starboard side fell into the sea. Now the vessel is stable and we have been able to arrest the drift towards the shore,' said an officer.
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