11 of 18 sailors found alive from sunken Russian ship in Pacific
A total of 11 sailors have now been found alive from the 18-man crew of a Russian cargo ship that sunk in the West Pacific two days ago, after rescuers found another six on Wednesday, Russian officials in Vladivostok said, according to RIA Novosti.
One sailor was found dead Tuesday, and Russian and South Korean boats and aircraft continue to scour the Sea of Japan in search for the remaining six members of the Sinegorye crew.
A spokesman for the regional rescue center in Russia's Far East port of Vladivostok said the latest six survivors, who had braved two days on the open seas, were detected by a helicopter and picked up by a South Korean patrol boat.
The ship, which was sailing in the Sea of Japan around 80 nautical miles off South Korea's east coast, sent out an SOS at 1:40 p.m. local time (6:40 a.m. Moscow time/2.40 a.m. GMT) Monday, before communications were lost.
South Korea's patrol boats and an aircraft are continuing the search, along with Russia's Yury Orlenko ship and an Emergencies Ministry Be-200 amphibious plane.
The vessel, which was transporting timber, sunk within one hour when a sudden heavy storm broke out, causing the vessel to lurch violently. Most of the timber broke through the holds, damaging hatches and equipment, and water began to flow into the ship, one of the survivors, speaking from a South Korean hospital, said.
When the ship heeled to an angle of about 20 degrees, the captain ordered the crew to leave the vessel. However, only one of the two rescue boats was operational, the other being trapped under a collapsed mast.
The missing sailors could have been swept to the east coast of North Korea by a northwesterly current, South Korean coast guard officials said earlier.
