A sailor who fell 14 metres down an on-board hatch has already undergone two emergency surgeries and remains in an induced coma after his stomach was pushed into his lungs upon impact.
It is understood the Chinese sailor on the Hong Kong-owned Shanghai Spirit plummeted down a hatch inside the ship’s cargo hold, followed by a second crew member who landed on top of him.
Both men were airlifted from the Shanghai Spirit off Port Alma – between Rockhampton and Gladstone – in a critical condition at 3pm on Sunday.
The men were rushed to Rockhampton Base Hospital. The second man is now in a stable condition.
The ship’s insurers are now working to bring the critical man’s family to Australia from China, as the International Transport Workers Federation warns they are running out of time.
Michael Fisher, who represents the ship’s insurer, said the Hong Kong owners and others were “working to organise that”.
ITF Australia coordinator Dean Summers said the man’s wife has an expired passport but still deserved to see her husband.
“We’re doing everything we can to get the owner’s attention on this stuff,” he said.
The ship was carrying 44 containers of explosive material, thought to be ammonium nitrate.
How the two men came to fall down a single hatch inside the ship is unclear.
Australia regulators boarded the ship after it came into the port on Tuesday.
The ship is due to leave Port Alma on Wednesday evening, pending approval from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
The ITF intends to board the ship tomorrow to interview other crew members.
“We really want to know the series of events that led up to this incident,” he said.
Given the height of the fall, Mr Summers said it could easily be investigating two fatalities.
The incident comes less than two weeks after a Filipino crewman vanished from a hulking coal ship after drinking a “toxic substance”.
The suspected death was not considered suspicious.
The plight of foreign seafarers has come under sharp scrutiny since two Filipino men died while working on a Japanese coal ship in late 2012.
The Sage Sagittarius has since earned a reputation as the “death ship” and become the subject of a NSW coronial inquiry which is due to hand down its findings in coming weeks.
The deaths also prompted a Senate Inquiry into “flags of convenience” shipping, a term used to describe ships that are registered in developing nations to avoid the taxes and regulations applied by more Western nations.
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Source: Northern Star
