13 vessels are already carrying out search operations in the deep sea, 700 Nautical Miles off to the south of Sri Lanka, in search of capsized Chinese fishing vessel Xinhua reports. According to Xinhua three Chinese navy ships and two foreign ships, are carrying out on-site search efforts currently.
Meanwhile Indian NAVY announce that in a swift humanitarian action on 17 May Indian Navy too deployed its Air MR assets for the search operations.
The Chinese deep-sea fishing vessel Lu Peng Yuan Yu 028 capsized last Tuesday (16th) in the central Indian Ocean with 39 people onboard. The Marine crew included 17 Chinese mariners, 17 Indonesian mariners, and five Filipinos.
China says that additional ships and aircraft from several countries will arrive to participate in the operation.
During the search operations, two bodies have been recovered by the teams yesterday but their identities have not been declared so far.
The Australian Maritime safety Authority handles the coordination part as the closest country to the disaster area. Meanwhile Chinese Ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian visited the Australian Maritime Safety Security (AMSA) on Thursday to express gratitude for Australia’s assistance and to gather updates on the ongoing rescue operation. Representatives from the Philippine Embassy to Australia and Indonesian Embassy to Australia also attended the meeting, acknowledging AMSA’s dedicated efforts in rescuing their citizens.
Chinese authorities have called for a comprehensive rescue operation to locate the missing crew members, as reported by Xinhua News Agency on Wednesday. Local authorities in Shandong Province, where the sunken fishing vessel is registered, have confirmed that various departments are coordinating their efforts to organize the search and rescue mission.
