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RME Mi-8 looks for two missing from sunken transport refrigerator

Eight rescued fishermen from the sunken ship were evacuated to the shore on Sunday, September 23

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, September 24 (Itar-Tass) — A Mi-8 helicopter of the Russian Ministry for Emergencies (RME) has taken off here on Monday in a search for two missing crewmembers from the transport refrigerator West that sank in the Sea of Okhotsk, an official in the press service of the RME center for the Kamchatka Territory has told Itar-Tass.

Eight rescued fishermen from the sunken ship were evacuated to the shore on Sunday, September 23. They were examined by physicians at the hospital of Oktyabrsky Settlement and were sent by bus on Monday to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The condition of the rescued is satisfactory and they are not in need of an urgent medical aid.

The transport refirgerator West capsized and sank on Sunday at a distance of eight kilometres from the shore in the area of Oktyrbrsky Settlement in the Kamchatka Peninsula's west. There were ten people on board.

According to those rescued, the ship's second engineer remained aboard the sunken ship. He is presumably dead. The fate of the other missing fisherman remains unknown.

According to a preliminary version of the incident, the sinking of the refrigerator, which was carrying 49.2 tonnes of general cargo, was caused by a wrong placement of the cargo.

The West is registered at the port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and belongs to the Vostochnaya Gavan (eastern harbour) Company. The ship was on a cargo run from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to Manily Settlement.