JOIN USIn yet another daring life-saving mission, the Navy and Coast Guard personnel rescued 14-member crew of ill-fated MV Coastal Pride that sunk off Daman, nearly 75 nautical miles off Mumbai, on Wednesday.
From Tuesday, the ship, that was carrying cement was in distress off Daman and she was asked to drop anchor. On Tuesday evening, a tug was hired to tow her away to coast, but could not reach because of inclement weather.
About 7 am, the ship sent out a distress call and asked for evacuation from the Directorate General of Shipping, and subsequently the Coast Guard’s Mumbai-based Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre and Navy was informed.
“It was a daring mission and all of them were saved,” Navy and Coast Guard officials said. Asked about any oil spill, an official of the Western Naval Command (WNC) told the Deccan Herald that the ship has completely turned and as of now no oil spill has been reported.
The vessel was anchored at Umbergaon which is 70 nautical miles from Mumbai and aboud eight nautical miles from the nearest coast.
Promptly reacting to the situation, the vessel, which had been constantly monitored by the Coast Guard, was again contacted. “It was ascertained that due to extremely bad weather, the vessel is tilting and rolling vigorously. The vessel also requested for evacuating,” the officials said.
Braving the extremely bad weather coupled with incessant rain, Coast Guard’s Chetak helicopter was launched from Air Station Daman at 7:40 am. As a total of 14 crew were to be evacuated, the helicopter lifted 2-3 crew in rotation landed at Umbergaon. A Naval SeaKing helicopter was also launched from Mumbai to assist in rescue mission.
A total of eight crew were evacuated when the vessel tilted dangerously and remaining 6 crew fell into the water. The SeaKing aviators and crew rescued them.