New Delhi (Gurpreet Singh): A major joint search and rescue mission is currently in progress across the Bay of Bengal after a Panama-flagged cargo ship carrying 24 crew members foundered off the coast of Odisha on Saturday. While emergency responders successfully recovered two mariners alive from an emergency life raft late Saturday evening, 22 crew members remain missing at sea.
The bulk carrier, identified as the MV Ocean Winner, had departed from the Odisha coastline on Friday laden with a cargo of iron ore bound for Singapore. Trouble emerged when coastal monitoring stations lost all radio and electronic communication with the vessel, prompting maritime authorities to trigger an emergency response. Coast Guard officials confirmed that the vessel went down roughly 240 nautical miles off the coast of Paradip.
The ship’s manifest listed a multinational crew consisting of 20 Chinese nationals, three sailors from Myanmar, and one crew member from Bangladesh. In response to the sinking, the Indian Coast Guard and the Indian Navy deployed naval assets and aircraft to comb the area for survivors, while commercial vessels operating in the nearby sea lanes have been alerted to assist in the operation. The precise cause behind the vessel’s sudden sinking remains undetermined as rescue efforts continue.
