Nine rescued, one dead after oil tanker capsizes off Oman

AFP | Muscat, Oman

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com

Search teams yesterday rescued nine crew members and recovered one body from an oil tanker that capsized off the coast of Oman earlier this week, the gulf state's maritime agency said.

The Comorian-flagged MV Prestige Falcon overturned and sank in the Arabian Sea late on Monday night with 13 Indian and three Sri Lankan nationals aboard.

"Search-and-rescue operations have successfully saved 9 crew members of the oil tanker Prestige Falcon, all found alive," Oman's Maritime Security Centre said in a post on X. "Tragically, one crew member was found deceased.

The searchand-rescue operations continue for the remaining members of the vessel's crew." An Indian navy vessel had rescued the nine crew after an overnight search around the vessel's last location, near the Omani port town of Duqm.

Warship INS Teg was diverted from its operations in the area to assist for a search-and-rescue operation hampered by "rough seas and strong winds", an Indian navy statement said.

The eight Indians and one Sri Lankan had been rescued by the vessel in the "challenging weather conditions", it added.

A long-range P8I naval reconnaissance aircraft was assisting in the continuing search efforts for the remaining six crew members still unaccounted for, the statement said.

India's navy has been deployed continuously around the Arabian Sea since 2008 but has been involved in a number of rescue operations in the past year following a surge in regional piracy attacks.

The 117-metre long (384-foot long) Prestige Falcon entered operations in 2007 and was headed for the port city of Aden before it ran into trouble, according to shipping website Vessel Finder. Oman's Maritime Security Centre has not specified the cause of the capsize.

It was also unclear whether the vessel was carrying any cargo at the time it ran into distress. In an apparently unrelated incident, Huthi rebels attacked two other oil tankers with missiles and drones off the coast of neighbouring Yemen on the same day as the Prestige Falcon's capsize.

Huthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree identified the two ships as the Panama-flagged Bentley I and the Liberia-flagged Chios Lion.