KL to resume rescue to find Indian ship crew

KL to resume rescue to find Indian ship crew

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): The chances that 29 victims of an Indian
shipwreck would be rescued alive dimmed yesterday as authorities
prepared to send navy divers into the sunken vessel where they
are believed trapped.

Ahmad Omar of the Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination
Center (MRCC) told AP by telephone that the search in the Strait
of Malacca where the ship went down, had been temporarily delayed
due to thick haze.

But later 50 men in six ships and boats of the Royal Malaysian
Navy, the Marine Department, police, the MRCC and an air force
plane, scoured the area off Port Dickson, 120 kilometers
southwest of here.

The 31,734 ton India-registered merchant ship Vikraman split
into two and sank Friday night in the Strait of Malacca minutes
after being sliced by the 85,963 ton Mount 1, a super tanker
registered in St. Vincent in the Caribbean.

The collision occurred in thick haze caused by forest fires in
nearby Sumatra, Indonesia.

Omar said until late yesterday nobody had been found and plans
were being made to send navy divers to look into the ship where
the victims were believed to be trapped.

The MRCC hoped to get more information about the Vikraman and
its owner in Madras had agreed to furnish the information. The
information was necessary for the divers to move about the ship
without being injured.

"I saw the ship going down after splitting into two as a
result of the impact," said Cartik Venghatraman, one of five
rescued alive from the cargo ship carrying 34 people. It was on
its way to Kaoshiung in Taiwan after picking up steel in Antwerp,
Holland.

Other rescue officials said the chance of finding anyone alive
was remote.

The survivors, who were brought to Port Klang, 40 kilometers
west of here, Saturday received treatment at the Tengku Ampuan
Rahimah Hospital before being housed at the Mariners' Club.

The Indian High Commission was making arrangements for them to
get the necessary travel documents to send them home.

The survivors said Saturday they listened helplessly as
trapped shipmates slid beneath the seas with their crippled
freighter.

Venghatraman, 21, who survived by clinging to floating
wreckage, said he heard the pleas of his trapped shipmates as the
boat sank in less than a minute. "By the grace of God I am still
alive."

There were no casualties reported on the Mount 1, which was
heading north to Madras from Singapore, and the Marine Department
said there were no oil spills.

The collision happened about ten hours after an Indonesian
jetliner crashed 410 kilometers while descending through the
thick haze that has choked much of Southeast Asia, killing all
234 aboard.

It was unclear whether the smoke played a role in either crash
and officials said they were not ruling that out and
investigations were continuing.

Visibility was about one and a half kilometers in the area
where the ships collided.

The five survivors said the impact threw them into the sea,
where they were rescued hours later by a Thai cargo vessel and a
navy boat.

Malaysian Deputy Transport Minister Ali Rustam said
investigators were trying to determine if the haze was a factor.

"In view of the haze situation, all vessels plying the Strait
of Malacca should be more cautious," he said.

It was the second collision in the Strait of Malacca since the
haze, caused by forest fires set to clear land, blanketed
Malaysia and other Southeast Asian nations in the last two
months.

The MRCC said the traffic flow in the Straits has been as busy
as ever despite the haze over the past few weeks and warning
signals were being sent through Penang Radio at hourly intervals
to ships to be extra careful while navigating in the sea lane.

About 36,000 oceangoing vessels use the congested 600-
kilometer waterway every year. Many more thousands of smaller
craft and fishing vessels also use the strait.