The head of Hong Kong’s marine department said on Monday there was still no sign of life from the Ukrainian ship that sank with 18 missing crew presumed trapped on board.
Nearly 48 hours after the boat went down on Saturday night, divers have been unable to get any response from inside the doomed vessel.
The department head, Roger Tupper, said medical personnel indicated they would likely have been able to live for 12 hours or so at most but refused to speculate on the fate of the missing sailors.
He said divers had carried out ”numerous” dives to the vessel, which is on the ocean floor about 37m down in the busy waters off Hong Kong.
”They have been continuously knocking on the hull of the vessel to try and see if there’s any response,” Tupper told reporters. ”We haven’t had any response from within. We have not been able to ascertain where these 18 missing seafarers are at the moment.”
The Naftogaz-67, a Ukrainian tug, had 24 Ukrainian crew and one Chinese sailor aboard when it collided with a China-registered cargo ship, the Yao-Hai, late on Saturday. Six Ukrainians and the Chinese sailor were rescued.
If the sailors do not survive, it would be the worst marine disaster for decades in the busy waterways of Hong Kong, one of the world’s leading ports and maritime centres.
Tupper said rescuers were struggling with the fact that the boat was overturned, meaning the hatches and deck were embedded in the ground — and that it was extremely cold and dark down at that depth.
”The conditions … are very difficult,” he said. ”It is absolutely black.” — Sapa-AFP