One dead, nine rescued off Oman’s coast after oil tanker sinks
Nine people rescued from 16-strong crew of Indian and Sri Lankan nationals as search ongoing for others.
Rescuers have saved nine crew members and retrieved the body of another after their oil tanker went down off the coast of Oman in the Arabian Sea.
The search teams responded to the tanker, MT Prestige Falcon, after it keeled over late on Monday some 25 nautical miles (46.3km) from Oman’s Ras Madrakah, said the country’s maritime security agency on Wednesday. Thirteen Indian and three Sri Lankan nationals were on board.
It was not immediately clear what caused the Comorian-flagged ship to capsize. But the Indian Navy, which sent a warship to help in search operations, said teams were dealing with rough seas and strong winds.
In a statement, India’s navy said eight Indian nationals were among those rescued, and that Indian and Omani teams were continuing to look for the others.
It said a long-range naval reconnaissance aircraft was assisting in the search for six crew members still unaccounted for.
India’s navy has been deployed continuously around the Arabian Sea since 2008 and has assisted in numerous rescue operations in the past year following a surge in regional piracy attacks.
The 117-metre long (384-foot long) MT Prestige Falcon entered operations in 2007 and was headed for the port city of Aden before it ran into trouble, according to shipping website VesselFinder.
In apparently unrelated incidents, Houthi rebels attacked two other oil tankers off the coast of neighbouring Yemen on the same day, targeting them with missiles and drones.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree identified the two ships as the Panama-flagged Bentley I and the Liberia-flagged Chios Lion.
The Chios Lion, an oil tanker, likely spilled oil after a Houthi drone slammed into its port side, with a 220km (137-mile) long oil slick located along Yemen’s coast after the attack, according to the Conflict and Environment Observatory.
The Houthis have been attacking ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since November in a campaign they say is intended to show solidarity with Palestinians amid Israel’s war on Gaza.
The attacks forced some of the world’s largest shipping companies to suspend operations in the region, instead sending their vessels on the longer route around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa slowing trade between Asia and Europe.
