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cargo ship
A Mongolian-flagged cargo ship carrying North Korean sailors has sunk off South Korea, killing at least two people.
Sixteen sailors were on board the cargo ship that went down off the southern coast of South Korea.
Sixteen sailors were on board the cargo ship that went down off the southern coast of South Korea (photo Reuters)
Three of the crew have been rescued, South Korean officials said. A search was under way for the remaining 11 crew members.
The vessel was heading from North Korea to China with a cargo of steel.
South Korea’s coast guard said 13 vessels and six aircraft were involved in the search.
It is not clear what caused the ship, which sent a distress call in the early hours of Friday, to sink.
South Korea generally returns North Korean sailors who encounter trouble in its waters, if they want to return.
At least 26 people have died and more than 200 are missing after MV Thomas Aquinas ferry collided with a cargo ship and sank off the Philippines.
The MV Thomas Aquinas was in collision with the cargo vessel on Friday evening near the central city of Cebu, officials said.
The ship was carrying 752 passengers and 118 crew, according to latest coast guard figures.
The incident took place around 1.2 miles from the shore.
The ferry was sailing into the port at Cebu – the country’s second biggest city – when it collided with the cargo ship travelling the other way at about 21:00 local time.
“The impact was very strong,” Rachel Capuno, a spokesperson for the owners of the ferry, told local radio.
Survivors said hundreds of passengers jumped into the ocean as the ferry began taking on water and listing. The crew distributed life jackets.
Many of the passengers were asleep and others struggled to find their way in the dark, reports said.
One survivor, Jerwin Agudong, said he and other passengers jumped overboard in front of the cargo vessel.
At least 26 people have died and more than 200 are missing after MV Thomas Aquinas ferry collided with a cargo ship and sank off the Philippines
“It seems some people were not able to get out,” Jerwin Agudong told radio station DZBB.
“I pity the children. We saw dead bodies on the side, and some being rescued.”
The ferry sank within 30 minutes of the collision, the AFP news agency reports.
Rear Admiral Luis Tuason of the coast guard said navy divers recovered at least four more bodies from the wreck early on Saturday.
“There could be more bodies there but there were ropes inside that our divers could get entangled in,” he said.
The coast guard is to send more divers with deep-water equipment to help recover bodies, he added.
Another coast guard official told reporters that the cargo ship, Sulpicio Express 7, had 36 crew members on board, but it did not sink.
Passengers on the ferry had embarked at Nasipit in the southern province of Agusan del Sur.
The coastguard and some commercial vessels were able to pick up more than 600 survivors.
The 11,000 tonne ferry was 40 years old, and operated by a Chinese-owned company called 2Go.
The company became the largest ferry operator in the Philippines three years ago, following a merger of several smaller firms, our correspondent adds.
Joy Villages, an official at the coastguard’s public affairs office headquarters in Manila, told AFP it was too early to determine the cause of Friday’s collision.
She said the Thomas Aquinas was a “roll-on, roll-off” ferry that allows vehicles to be driven aboard and is commonly used in the Philippines.
Maritime accidents are common in the Philippine archipelago because of tropical weather, badly maintained passenger boats and weak enforcement of safety regulations.
The world’s worst maritime disaster in peacetime occurred in the Philippines in December 1987. More than 4,000 people died when the Dona Paz ferry collided with a tanker.
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SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule has splashed down in the ocean off the California coast.
The return to Earth completes a historic first mission to the International Space Station (ISS) by a privately operated vehicle.
Impact with the water was confirmed at 08:42 Pacific Daylight Time.
Fast boats positioned in the splashdown zone were despatched to recover the unmanned capsule.
Early data suggested Dragon came down very close to its targeted location about 900 km (560 miles) from the Baja Peninsula.
The mission was intended as a demonstration of the freight service SpaceX plans to run to the platform.
SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule has splashed down in the ocean off the California coast
It took half a ton of food and supplies up to the ISS astronauts, and brought down about two-thirds of a ton of completed experiments and redundant equipment.
A successful recovery of the capsule and its contents will trigger a $1.6bn (£1bn; 1.3bn-euro) contract with the US space agency (NASA) for 12 further re-supply trips.
Dragon’s fall to Earth was overseen by controllers at SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California, and at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
The journey home began early on Thursday when the vessel was unberthed from the ISS by the station’s 17.5 m (58 ft) robotic arm.
Astronaut Don Pettit, at the controls of the Canadarm2, then released the cargo ship to fly free at 09:49 GMT, just as the station was moving over the Southern Ocean.
Dragon fired its thrusters three times to take itself down and away from the platform. A final 10-minute burn some five hours later committed the capsule to a plunge into the atmosphere.
A range of ships and planes had been organized to track the return, which was slowed in the final minutes by three parachutes.
Once recovered, Dragon will be returned to port, and then transferred to Texas for inspection and for its cargo to be unloaded.
NASA has engaged SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corporation) and another company, Orbital Sciences Corporation of Virginia, to fulfill logistics roles at the ISS.
The agency hopes the contracting out of freight duties will save it money that can then be re-invested in more daring activities beyond the station, at destinations such as asteroids and Mars.
The commercial cargo approach will be followed later this decade by crew transport services.
SpaceX wants this business as well, and is developing the safety and life-support equipment that would allow Dragon to double up as an astronaut taxi.
SpaceX cargo capsule Dragon returns to Earth on Thursday having spent a week attached to the International Space Station.
The unmanned vehicle will fall through the atmosphere to make a splashdown in the Pacific off the California coast.
Dragon mission made history last Friday by becoming the first privately produced craft to visit the orbiting platform.
The mission has been a demonstration of the freight service SpaceX intends to run to the station.
It has a $1.6 billion contract with the US space agency (NASA) waiting to be triggered on the successful recovery of Dragon from the ocean.
“It’s a very challenging phase of flight. Only a few countries have done this before so we’re not taking this lightly,” said SpaceX mission director John Coulurlis ahead of the re-entry.
Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) closed the hatch on Dragon on Wednesday after filling it with 660 kg (1,450 lbs) of experiments and failed equipment that need to come back to Earth.
SpaceX cargo capsule Dragon returns to Earth on Thursday having spent a week attached to the International Space Station
The crew has to unberth the cargo ship from the platform using its big robotic arm before releasing it to fly free.
Dragon must then fire its thrusters several times to take itself down and away from the station. A final burn will put it on a course for re-entry into the atmosphere.
SpaceX has organized a range of ships, planes and ground stations to track the descent of the capsule, which will be slowed in the final minutes by three big parachutes.
Dragon is projected to hit the water at 15:44 GMT (11:44 EDT).
“Our splashdown zone is about 490 nautical miles south-west of Los Angeles,” explained John Coulurlis.
“The recovery boats – it’s a fleet of three vessels with supporting fast boats that go out to safe the spacecraft.
“It will take about two to three days to return to port. We’ll then go direct to our facility in Texas for cargo unloading and further spacecraft inspection.”
SpaceX – Space Exploration Technologies Corporation – has been engaged by NASA to fulfill a logistics role at the station just as soon as it has proved its systems. The current mission was designed to see it complete a final set of performance milestones.
NASA has another such arrangement with Orbital Sciences Corporation of Virginia, although its freighter, known as Cygnus, is still several months from making its maiden flight.
The agency hopes that by contracting out the carriage of freight it will save money which can then be re-invested in more daring activities beyond the station, at destinations such as asteroids and Mars.
The commercial cargo approach will be followed later this decade by crew transport services.
SpaceX wants this business as well, and is developing the safety and life-support equipment that would allow Dragon to double up as an astronaut taxi.
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The Italian coast guards have rescued the crew of a cargo ship after it ran aground on a reef off Sicily in stormy seas.
All 19 crew members were ferried to shore by helicopters after the captain of the Gelso M gave the order to abandon ship.
Weather conditions are deteriorating in the area near the city of Syracuse on Sicily’s south-east coast.
There were no reports of any cargo aboard the Italian-flagged vessel.
Coastguard spokesman Cosimo Nicastro said four helicopters had been used to airlift the crew to safety, and all of them were well.
Helicopters were needed for the evacuation because the ship’s position on the reefs had made it impossible for the crew to lower lifeboats or for rescue vessels to approach.
The ship’s double hull meant there was a low risk of pollution but the environment ministry was alerted nonetheless, AFP news agency reports.
Rescue service sources quoted by the agency suggested that, given the weather conditions, the captain had been sailing too close to the coast.
The incident comes two months after the cruise ship Costa Concordia hot rocks off the island of Giglio on Italy’s west coast, capsizing with the loss of 32 lives.
