Search on for missing 14
Crew members, mostly from China, went missing after a sand-dredging vessel capsized in Muar.
BATU PAHAT:
A Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) ship has been dispatched to rescue 14 crew members who are believed trapped in a capsized sand-dredging vessel off Muar.
The commander of the search-and-rescue (SAR) operation, Kapt (Maritime) Sanifah Yusof said the KD Mahameru vessel from the Lumut navy base was expected to arrive at the location at about 5am today.
Sanifah, who is the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) southern region deputy director (operations), said the rescuers conducted a knocking test on the vessel at about 3pm and detected a response, indicating that those trapped inside the vessel were alive.
He said the vessel was large and the trapped crew would only be able to survive for 24 hours to 48 hours.
He said they had sought the assistance of RMN divers to help rescue the trapped crew.
In the incident, one crewman died and three others were rescued when the vessel JBB Rong Chang 8 capsized off Parit Jawa yesterday.
Sanifah said the vessel had 18 crew members, comprising one Malaysian and 17 foreigners, aged between 20 and 64.
He said the three rescued crewmen and the body of the drowned crewman had been
We’re quite hopeful that there may be survivors, as there are pockets of air and areas which haven’t been totally y filled with water yet. Lt-Kdr Muhammad Zulkarnain Abdullah
brought to Sultanah Fatimah Specialist Hospital in Muar.
MMEA Batu Pahat base director Lt-Kdr Muhammad Zulkarnain Abdullah said a distress call was received at 8.20am yesterday.
He added that 26 divers from the marine police, Fire and Rescue Department and Civil Defence Department as well as MMEA had been dispatched to the scene.
“We’re quite hopeful that there may be survivors, as there are pockets of air and areas which haven’t been totally filled with water yet,” he said.
The SAR operation continued last night.