Paradip: Two crew members rescued from a Panama-flagged cargo ship, which sank in the Bay of Bengal last week, arrived at Paradip Port aboard the Indian Coast Guard Ship (ICGS) Varad on Thursday.
Upon the ship’s arrival, a special immigration team, along with Paradip Additional SP Ajinkya Mane and CISF officials, boarded the vessel to conduct an initial verification. Following the preliminary inspection, both survivors were admitted to the Paradip Port Hospital.
After a health check-up, the two rescued mariners, identified as Chen Jianhe and Pan Tonglai, will be handed over to their shipping agency by the immigration office. The agency will subsequently transport them to Kolkata, where they will travel home in coordination with the Chinese Embassy.
“ICGS Varad has safely brought two Chinese survivors, rescued from a life raft on August 22, to Paradip, where they received onboard medical care and were handed over to company representatives alongside immigration and police officials. Meanwhile, coordinated sea-and-air search operations, led by MRCC Sri Vijaya Puram, remain in full swing to locate the remaining missing crew,” said Indian Coast Guard CPRO Commandant Amit Uniyal.
The cargo vessel MV Ocean Winner, carrying iron ore and 24 crew members, lost contact about 200 nautical miles off the coast on August 20, prompting the ICG and the Indian Navy to launch a search and rescue operation. Two days later, an Indian Navy P-8I aircraft located two Chinese crew members in life rafts, who were subsequently rescued by the merchant tanker MT Aisopos. The remaining crew included 18 Chinese, three Myanmar, and one Bangladeshi national.