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Aircraft, ships continue search for missing dry cargo ship

Search operation is impeded by bad weather conditions – strong winds, a storm and poor visibility

KHABAROVSK, October 29 (Itar-Tass) — Two aircraft and three ships continue on Monday the search for the dry cargo ship Amurskaya that went missing in the Sea of Okhotsk on Sunday. The search operation is impeded by bad weather conditions – strong winds, a storm and poor visibility, sources from the Far Eastern regional centre of the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations report.

The sources said an EMERCOM’s BE-200 amphibious plane with rescuers on board flew early on Monday to the area where the dry cargo ship had gone missing. A Mi-8 helicopter also takes part in the search operation. The coastline is also examined by local rescuers.

The trawlers "Ternei-1" and "Kapitan Gams", registered at the port of Nakhodka, and the tanker Novik continued the search at night.

The dry-cargo freighter Amurskaya, which is registered in the port Nikolayevsk-on-Amur, set out on Sunday from the settlement Neran in the Tuguro-Chumikansky district in the Khabarovsk region to the Feklistov Island, which makes part of the Shantarskie archipelago. The destination was to be the port Okhotsk in the north of the Khabarovsk region.

But at 7:50 am Moscow time (14:50 local time) on Sunday the emergency radio beacon went off, giving the May Day signals. After that the radio contact with the freighter was lost. Vessels sailing in the area were immediately dispatched to the site.

So far the search operation has yielded no results. The fate of the seamen on board the Amurskaya remains unclear.

Meanwhile, EMERCOM’s Far Eastern regional centre has updated information about the crew, saying it consists of eight people. Earlier reports said 11 people were on board.