MOSCOW, January 28 (Itar-Tass) – More rescuers, aircraft and vessels have been sent to the area where a fishing boat capsized in the Sea of Japan off the Russian coast on Sunday, a source from the Primorye department of the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations told Tass by phone.
The source said “nine sea vessels as well as five helicopters and planes, including a Be-200 amphibious plane,” take part in the search operation at the moment.
“A total of 15,000 square kilometers of the Sea of Japan have been searched within the past 24 hours,” the source said. The search operation continues.
Ten seamen from the fishing boat that capsized off Russia’s Primorye on Sunday have been brought to hospital in the port city of Kholmsk in Russia’s Sakhalin. Two of them are in a grave condition. Five more seamen, including the captain of the Shans-101 fishing vessel, are on board the Talan trawler which is sailing to the port of Nakhodka.
Six Russian nationals and four Indonesian seamen were brought to Holmsk on board the Russian dry cargo ship Anatoly Torchinov. Most of them were wearing just T-shirts and shorts. Almost all of them received frostbites. Two Indonesian seamen got their legs frostbitten. In the port, the rescued seamen were dressed in warm clothes and rushed to hospital on ambulance cars.
The Shans-101 is a crab boat with the water displacement of 640 tons. Its owner is the fishing farm Vostok-1 basing in Vladivostok. The Shans-101 was one of its best ships. The ill-fated crab ship registered in Nakhodka sailed off from the Plastun port in the north of Primorye on December 26, 2012. Late on Sunday it capsized and sank for yet unknown reasons, as it was fishing 32 miles off Primorye.
There were 30 crewmen on board – 19 Russians and 11 Indonesians. Fifteen people were rescued, and eight died. Search continues for another seven seamen whose fate remains unclear.