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First day of search for freighter missing in Sea of Okhotsk futile

The amphibious airplane Be-200 is on the way back to its base in Khabarovsk, the tanker Novik will continue the nighttime search

VLADIVOSTOK, October 28 (Itar-Tass) —— The search-and-rescue operation in the Sea of Okhotsk, where the dry cargo ship Amurskaya went missing on Sunday morning, continued for all daylight time on Sunday, but it was futile. The amphibious airplane Be-200, which belongs to the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, is on the way back to its base in Khabarovsk, the tanker Novik will continue the nighttime search, the press service of the Far Eastern regional emergency situation centre reported on Sunday.

The freighter Amurskaya, which is registered in the port Nikolayevsk-on-Amur, set out from the settlement Neran in the Tuguro-Chumikansky district in the Khabarovsk Territory on the Uda River to the Feklistov Island, which makes part of the Shantarskie archipelago. The destination was to be the port Okhotsk in the north of the territory, the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk maritime rescue coordination sub-centre reported. But on Sunday morning, where the freighter was sailing off the western coast of the Shantarskie Islands, the emergency radio beacon went off, giving the May Day signals. After that the radio contact with the freighter was lost.

The crew of the dry cargo ship consists of 11 people, the service of the captain of the port Nikolayevsk-on-Amur reported. The search for the freighter is complicated by a heavy rain, strong winds, low clouds and high waves.