Cargo ship sinks in Bay with 24 crew, including Bangladeshi

A Panama-flagged cargo vessel carrying 24 crew members, including a Bangladeshi national, sank in the Bay of Bengal about 240 nautical miles off the coast of India’s Odisha state on Saturday.

The vessel, MV Ocean Winner, was carrying 72,100 metric tonnes of iron ore fines loaded at Odisha’s Paradip port and was bound for Singapore, according to Indian authorities and news agency Press Trust of India (PTI).

The 24-member crew comprised 20 Chinese nationals, three from Myanmar and one Bangladeshi, officials said.

The vessel departed Paradip Port at 10:42pm local time on August 20. However, authorities lost contact with the ship two days later.

The Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) at Sri Vijaya Puram, the capital of India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands, received information about the loss of contact with the vessel at around 11:48am local time on August 22, NDTV reported.

The ship’s operator, Victory Star Group Company Ltd, subsequently raised an alert and requested search-and-rescue assistance.

Following the alert, the Indian Coast Guard and Navy launched a joint search and rescue operation in the area.

Indian authorities deployed Coast Guard vessels Varad and Anmol to the search zone, while a third vessel, Vijit, was dispatched from Sri Vijaya Puram to assist in the operation.

Other vessels operating in the area have also been alerted and asked to assist in locating and rescuing the crew, according to Indian officials.

A senior Indian police officer told PTI that authorities were still unable to confirm how many crew members had been rescued.

Reuters, however, reported that the Indian Coast Guard had rescued two people from a life raft. The condition and nationalities of those rescued were not immediately clear.

The cause of the sinking of MV Ocean Winner has not yet been established. Search and rescue teams were continuing operations in the Bay of Bengal, while authorities were also trying to determine the whereabouts of the remaining crew members.

The incident comes after the vessel had completed loading its large consignment of iron ore fines at Paradip and set sail for Singapore. The substantial distance from the Odisha coast has made the rescue operation particularly challenging.

Indian authorities have not yet released further details about the Bangladeshi crew member or confirmed whether the person was among those rescued.