On August 27, eleven crew members were rescued from a sunken cargo ship in Hong Kong during severe tropical storm ‘Pakhar’.
What happened?
The Government Flying Service (GFS) of China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) received an alert Hong Kong Maritime Rescue Coordination Center about a vessel sinking and eleven crew members waiting to be rescued from the bridge of the ship. The vessel was reported sinking about 64 nautical miles east of Hong Kong when Typhoon ‘Pakhar’ was wreaking havoc in Hong Kong waters.
Typhoon reason for sinking of ship:
The search area was located to the east of the severe tropical storm Pakhar, which triggered a No. 8 Gale or Storm Signal in Hong Kong.
The GFS said the rescue area was affected by hurricane force winds with low cloud base and rough sea state. Its crew reported heavy rain with poor visibility down to 500 meters.
Crew members rescued:
The GFS sent out a ‘Challenger 605’ fixed wing plane with three crew members to the area in search of the vessel. The plane later found that the bow of the vessel was already submerged in the water..
Subsequently, a Super Puma L2 helicopter with five crew members was deployed, and was successful in rescuing all the 11 crew members. None of the crew members onboard the vessel were injured and all were reported to be in a stable condition.
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Source: Xinhua
