Search for missing ship continues, oil spill detected
The Japanese Coast Guard on December 28 sent its helicopter to the area where a large Vietnamese ship lost contact at sea three days earlier, resuming the search for the missing ship at the request of Vietnam.
Vinalines Queen with 23 crew members on board went missing on December 25 while transporting 54,400 tonnes of nickel ore from Morowali Port in Indonesia to Ningde Port in China. In the last telegram to the Vietnam Maritime Search and Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC), the ship was listing 18 degrees and lost its contact with the mainland shortly after that.
Japan and the Philippines dispatched their helicopters to the eastern part of the Luzon Island on December 27 in a coordinated effort to search for the ship. However, they halted their operation at 14.00pm the same day, explaining they had not found the ship, except for oil slicks from the fixed coordinates.
Albert Antoine, Asia Pacific Managing Director for exactEarth Canadian Company in Singapore, said its satellite found Vinalines Queen at 12.28 on December 24. Its speed was very low due to bad weather. If the ship sank, the satellite could not discover the trace.
The Vietnam MRCC has asked regional countries to continue supporting the search for the Vinalines Queen.