Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Vessel Splits into Half Southwest of Hong Kong, Dozens Missing (VIDEO)


Sat 02 Jul 2022 | 02:49 PM
Omnia Ahmed

An engineering vessel that was 160 nautical miles southwest of Hong Kong broke into two pieces this morning, leaving dozens missing, the Government Flying Service (GFS) announced.

The ship "suffered substantial damage and broke into two pieces" and the 30-member crew abandoned the vessel, the GFS reported, noting that it was notified by the Hong Kong Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC).

Three crew members have already been rescued so far but the other 27 crew members are still missing.

https://twitter.com/MarioDeFenza/status/1543184339583762433

The marine rescue ship of the South China Sea Rescue Bureau of the Ministry of Transport has arrived at the incident scene near the centre of Typhoon Chaba.

More than two dozen crew members are unaccounted for after their ship broke into two during a typhoon in the South China Sea on Saturday, with rescuers scrambling to find them, according to officials.

Footage on social media provided by Hong Kong authorities showed a person being airlifted onto a helicopter while waves crashed over the deck of the semi-submerged ship below.

https://twitter.com/StarboyHK/status/1543143447107776513

The three survivors noted that other crew members may have been swept away from the vessel by waves before the first helicopter arrived, according to a government statement.

Typhoon Chaba in the central part of the South China Sea caused landfall in Guangdong province in China.

https://twitter.com/Petagna/status/1543194731395665925

Rescuers in Hong Kong were notified of the incident at 7:25 am local time (2325 GMT on Friday) and found the ship near Chaba's center, where harsh weather conditions and nearby wind farms made the operation "more difficult and dangerous".