Storm hampers search for 16 sailors from sunken Vietnamese vessel in South China Sea
Storm hampers search for 16 sailors from sunken Vietnamese vessel in South China Sea. The sea is never predictable, and even experienced sailors are not immune to its whims. When the elements strike a vessel, every minute counts. Behind every number in the reports are human lives, families waiting for news, and hope that does not fade as long as rescuers continue their search. In stormy conditions and low visibility, every life saved is a victory over the ocean.
As of 21:00 on Sunday, 46 crew members of the sunken Vietnamese vessel had been rescued, including one person saved by the Vietnamese side, authorities in China's southern city of Sansha reported. At 20:05, the Chinese side transferred 41 people, rescued from life rafts by the Chinese rescue vessel Nanhai Jiu 115, to the Vietnamese naval ship Truong Sa-01. The remaining four are due to be handed over on Monday. "The 16 missing people are not in lifeboats or rafts; they all fell into the water. Since people in the water are relatively small objects, they are quite difficult to detect on radar. Moreover, it is now evening, visibility at sea is poor, the wind has increased to force 7–8, and waves have risen to 2–3 metres, making the search difficult," said Zhou Zhou, deputy director of the command centre of the Hainan Maritime Safety Administration, on Sunday evening.
The Vietnamese vessel Koi Nguyen 18, carrying 62 Vietnamese nationals, sank in bad weather near Yongshu Reef in the South China Sea on Friday evening. At 18:23 on Saturday, the Chinese rescue vessel Nanhai Jiu 115 spotted a life raft from the Vietnamese vessel and by 18:54 had rescued all 29 people on board. China's Nanhai Rescue Bureau also dispatched another vessel and a rescue helicopter to support the search.
Yongshu Reef is located in the southern part of the South China Sea, an area subject to territorial disputes between several countries, including China and Vietnam. Since the Nanhai Jiu 115 was put into service for scheduled rescue operations in the Nansha Islands in July 2018, the Nanhai Rescue Bureau has carried out 146 missions in waters under the administration of Sansha City near the islands, deploying rescue forces 332 times. The bureau has rescued 817 people in distress, including 90 foreign nationals, as well as 33 vessels, including three foreign ships. As CCTV+ reports. The search for the missing sailors continues, but deteriorating weather conditions are significantly hampering rescue efforts.
