The Sri Lankan Navy has recovered 14 bodies from a capsized Chinese vessel which sank in the Indian Ocean last week, as per a defense ministry statement on Wednesday.
The Navy vessel ‘SLNS Vijayabahu’ embarked on a Search and Rescue (SAR) operation to help the Chinese fishing vessel ‘Lu Peng Yuan Yu 028’, which sank in the Australian Search and Rescue Region south of Sri Lanka and some 5,000 kilometers from Perth.
The Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC) at the Navy Headquarters in Colombo is responsible for coordinating and facilitating maritime search and rescue operations in its designated region as well as neighbouring regions, the statement noted.
It said that as the Sri Lankan Navy arrived on the scene on 22 May, the “regional stakeholders” had already undertaken “extensive aeronautical search and surface” operations in the region.
Besides Sri Lanka, the navies of Australia, India, Indonesia, the Maldives and the Philippines have been involved in the search and rescue efforts and were among the first responders to the incident.
The Sri Lankan Navy divers carried out the effort amid “low visibility” and “water turbulence”, managing to retrieve two bodies from the captain’s cabin and the accommodation area.
The Sri Lankan Navy said that its divers also “located” 12 more bodies in various compartments but decided against retrieving them because of “decomposition and the potential health hazards posed by operating in contaminated waters with limited protective gear”.
The mapped locations of the bodies were conveyed to Chinese officials aboard MV Shandong De Long, which arrived at the location with a Chinese salvage team.
Another two bodies had been recovered on 18 May, the Chinese foreign ministry said.
The search and rescue mission has drawn attention from the top Chinese leadership, with President Xi Jinping making a “special instruction” to deploy additional rescue forces and coordinate with foreign navies to recover the bodies, the Chinese foreign ministry said last week.