Rescuers fight to reach Neftegaz 67
Photo by AFP
Rescuers are continuing attempts to reach 18 Ukrainian seamen trapped in the
capsized Ukrainian anchor handling tug supply vessel (AHTS) Neftegaz 67
following a collision off Hong Kong, but hold little hope they have
survived.
Two days after the Neftegaz 67 sank after colliding with a freighter near
Lantau Island, director of Marine for the Hong Kong Marine Department, Roger
Tupper, said there was no way of knowing if they were alive or dead.
"We haven't found any of the 18 seafarers during surface searches and
the attempt to get a response from within the vessel has so far not received
any response," the South China Morning Post reported Tupper saying.
"Nevertheless, our operations are continuing. We are going to find a way
to access the hull. We will continue until we have searched the inside."
Tupper said experience showed that people trapped in vessels could survive in
air pockets for only about 12 hours.
Only seven of the vessel's 25 crew were rescued immediately after the
collision.
A spokesman for the Guangzhou Salvage Bureau, which is helping to recover the
vessel, said the Hua Tian Long, the biggest floating derrick in Asia, would
arrive at the scene by Friday to help.
The salvage operation is expected to take about six hours. Its difficulty
enhanced by strong currents, said the spokesman.
“Besides, the information about the tugboat is unclear,” he said. “Our experts
believe that the tugboat weighs between 2500 and 2600 tons, but there are
suggestions that it might weigh just 1700 tons.”
The tugboat captain has been quoted as blaming those in charge of the
150-metre Chinese freighter Yaohai for the collision.
Agence France-Presse reported Anatoly Prisiazhnyuk, president of the energy
company Chornomornaftogaz, which owns the vessel, as saying that the captain
had received permission from the controller to pass.
“The Chinese cargo ship should have let it pass, but it did not do that,”
Prisiazhnyuk said from Simferopol in the Ukraine.
The 264-foot Neftegaz 67 was en-route to an oilfield off Hong Kong from the
Chinese port of Shenzhen.
25 March 2008 02:13 GMT
| last updated:
25 March 2008 08:01 GMT
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