Filipino sailor among 13 missing in Japan
Credit to Author: THE MANILA TIMES| Date: Sun, 01 Mar 2020 04:39:25 +0000
TOKYO: A Filipino and 12 other crew members onboard a Belize-flagged cargo ship are missing after the vessel collided with a fishing boat off Japan’s northeastern prefecture of Aomori late Saturday, the Chinese consulate general in Sapporo said Sunday.
Guo Xing 1, the 1,989-ton cargo ship with 14 crew onboard, informed the Japanese about the incident after the collision at 10:17 p.m. local time Saturday about 12 km off the coast of Rokkasho.
The missing crew also included five Vietnamese and seven Chinese . One Vietnamese crewmember was rescued.
The Chinese consulate general said it immediately activated the emergency response mechanism and contacted relevant Japanese departments to obtain information, asking the Japan Coast Guard and other concerned units to carry out search and rescue.
By 10:45 a.m. Sunday, Japan had dispatched six aircraft, six patrol ships and dozens of rescuers to carry out rescue operations, the consulate general said.
At present, some floating objects have been found in the area of the collision, but it is not yet known whether they were related to the sunken ship, and no further progress has been made in personnel search, the consulate general said.