Low visibility, strong winds and high waves complicated the search for 16 people missing after a Vietnamese ship sank in the South China Sea, according to a Chinese maritime official Sunday evening.
A total of 46 crew members from the sunken Vietnamese ship were rescued as of 21:00 on Sunday, including one person rescued by the Vietnamese side, authorities in the south China city of Sansha said.
At 20:05, the Chinese side transferred 41 of those rescued in batches by life rafts from the Chinese rescue vessel Nanhai Jiu 115 to the Vietnamese naval ship Truong SA-01. The remaining four people are scheduled to be handed over on Monday.
"The missing 16 people are not on lifeboats or life rafts; they all fell into the water. Since people in the water are relatively small targets, it is quite difficult to detect them on radar. In addition, it is now evening, visibility at sea is poor, and the wind has increased to force seven to eight, and waves have risen to two to three meters high, making it harder for us to conduct search," said Zhou Zhou, deputy director of Hainan Maritime Safety Administration's command center, on Sunday evening.
The Vietnamese Khoi Nguyen 18, carrying 62 Vietnamese nationals, sank in bad weather near Yongshu Reef in the South China Sea on Friday evening.
At 18:23 on Saturday, Chinese rescue vessel Nanhai Jiu 115 spotted a life raft from the Vietnamese ship and rescued all 29 people aboard by 18:54.
China's Nanhai Rescue Bureau also sent another vessel and a rescue helicopter to support the search.
Since deploying the Nanhai Jiu 115 for routine rescue operations in the Nansha Islands in July 2018, the Nanhai Rescue Bureau has carried out 146 missions in waters administered by Sansha City near the islands, deploying rescue forces 332 times.
The bureau has rescued 817 people in distress, including 90 foreign nationals, as well as 33 vessels, including three foreign vessels.
Low visibility, strong wind, high waves complicate rescue efforts after Vietnamese ship sinks in South China Sea
