A ship with 30 sailors on board was caught in typhoon Chaba in the South China Sea and broke in two. As the Hong Kong newspaper “South China Morning Post” reported, after the accident on Saturday, the air rescue service was initially able to bring three crew members from the sinking ship to safety around 300 kilometers west of the Chinese special administrative region. They were transported to a hospital.
The status of the other 27 seafarers initially remained unclear.
According to the report, the Chinese-flagged industrial ship “Fujing001” was distressed and broken up off the south China coast on Saturday morning as the typhoon raged in the region.
Video footage showed a crew member being pulled into a helicopter with a lifeline as the ship sank into the sea below.
The three survivors reported that some colleagues may have been swept away by the waves before the first helicopter arrived. The authorities sent a total of two planes and four helicopters, and a lifeboat was also deployed.
Waves up to ten meters high, wind speeds of 144 kilometers per hour and visibility of less than 500 meters made it difficult to find the other seamen. The rescue work was to continue throughout the night.
