Two crew members of the capsized Chinese deep-sea fishing vessel have been confirmed dead, per reports from the Chinese Ministry of Transport on 18 May. A multinational effort has been racing against time to locate missing crew members.
The Indian Navy further mentioned that responding to a distress call it received from the fishing vessel dubbed Lu Peng Yuan Yu 028, it had promptly deployed the P-8I maritime patrol aircraft on 17 May for search and rescue (SAR) efforts in the southern Indian Ocean Region, about 900 nm from India.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) is in coordination with the rescue efforts in waters situated about 5,000 km from Australia and approximately 1,300 km south of Sri Lanka, mentioning that they had reportedly identified a significant portion in the Indian Ocean where they are going to focus the search.
The Australian Defence Force has also deployed their P-8A aircraft for this search.
Per the Chinese ministry, as of 2 pm on Thursday, ten vessels, including three navy vessels of China and a foreign vessel, had been involved in SAR efforts, and more ships are also scheduled to reach.
P8I aircraft have conducted multiple extensive searches despite poor weather. It located multiple objects possibly belonging to the sunken vessel. As an immediate response, SAR equipment had been deployed at the scene by the Indian aircraft at the request of PLA(N) (Chinese Navy) vessels closing the area, the Indian Navy spokesperson mentioned on Thursday.
The missing crew members include 17 individuals from China, 17 from Indonesia, and five from the Philippines.
References: Hindustan Times, The Hindu
