Thiruvananthapuram: Probe team inspects ship; no info on missing nine

Thiruvananthapuram: A probe team comprising officials from Mercantile Marine department and Fort Kochi Coastal Police on Thursday inspected the MV Desh Shakthi, an Indian flagged vessel, suspected to have been involved in the mid-sea collision with a fishing boat resulting in the death of three fishermen and missing of nine others two days ago.

The team reached the Managalore Port in the morning and the inspection began around noon.Forensic experts collected paint samples from the ship. Examination of the same is expected to help in proving whether the ship actually caused the collision or not. 

Officials do not have any definitive proof regarding the ship’s involvement in the collision. The role of a Liberian Flagged Ship, which was also present near the accident site, is also suspected in the incident.   

The efforts to trace the missing fishermen continued on Thursday with two Indian Coast Guard Ships Vikram and Aryamal and INS Sunayna leading the search operations. Besides these ships, two helicopters of the Coastguard and another helicopter of the Navy were also deployed for aerial surveillance. Apart from the efforts of the Navy and Coast Guard a team of 20 fishing boats from Munambam are pressed into the search coordinated by the Marine Enforcement wing.

The rescue team was unable to locate the wreckage of the sunken boat ‘Oceanic’ as it was lying in the sea bed 70 metres deep from the surface, officials said.

Fisheries Minister J. Mercy Kuttyamma and S. Sharma, MLA, held a meeting to evaluate the progress of the rescue operations with senior officers of the Navy, Indian Coast Guard, district administration and the district Police.