[020112.EN.SEA] Missing Vinalines Vessel 'Sank', Says Survivor

Singapore: One crew member of the Vinalines ship which went missing with 23 people onboard off the coast of the Philippines on Sunday has been rescued while the rest are presumed dead, Vietnamese media VnExpress has reported. 

 

The newswire quoted Nguyen Anh Vu, director general of Vietnam Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Center (VMSRCC), as saying that the seafarer was rescued by the UK-owned London Courage ship, which was on its way to Singapore. 

Dau Ngoc Hung, 31, believed to be the only survivor, was found drifting on Friday morning on a lifeboat some 350km from the site where Vinalines Queen was located before it went missing, Vu said. Hung is quoted as saying that the ship, which was carrying 54,000 tons of nickel ore, sank at around 7 a.m. on December 25 after it titled too much to the left. 

Liquefaction of nickel ore and formation of slurry that can cause ship stability problems is a danger that has increasingly been highlighted by classification societies, insurers and others in the past few years. 

Source : STA, 01.01.12.