Ship’s crew rescued after fire at sea

SIXTEEN crew members of a Taiwanese fishing vessel are safe after they were rescued more than 1100km south-east of Durban after a fire broke out on board their ship.

At 6.45am yesterday the Cape Town-based Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC) was alerted to the blaze on board the Teng Ming Yang No 268 that had forced the crew to abandon ship.

The MRCC team on duty immediately contacted the Taipei Rescue Co-ordination Centre (RCC) to obtain additional details while using the satellite AIS system to identify any vessels near Teng Ming that could be called upon to help.

Telkom Maritime Radio then issued a mayday relay for vessels in the area to help.

The vessel Mearsk Lanco, which was approximately 500km away, responded to the mayday appeal, but was stood down after the MRCC was notified by Taipei RCC that a sister vessel had already been diverted and was en route to rescue the fishermen.

All the crew were reported to be safe shortly after 9am after they had been rescued, but the Teng Ming Yang was still burning and sinking slowly.

A navigational warning has been issued to other ships in the area.