Wed, Jan 21, 2004 page4

• Rescuers in fjord search for boat's missing crew

  • AP
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  After saving a dozen people aboard a freighter that abruptly capsized in a Norwegian inlet, rescuers desperately searched yesterday for 16 missing crew members, most of them Filipinos, despite fading hopes they would be found alive in the overturned hull.

  At least two people have been confirmed dead, rescuers said.

  

  A tugboat assists in the rescue operation next to bulk ship Rocknes that capsized in icy seas near Bergen, Norway on Monday.

  PHOTO:EPA

  "We will keep searching as long as there is hope and beyond that," said Asbjoern Andersen, operations leader for the district police. "They are still searching for signs of life in the wreck."

  Facing bitterly cold weather Monday night on the North Sea, emergency teams pulled 12 people from the waters by hauling them through the bobbing hull of the 163m MS Rocknes.

  Else Beth Roalso, of Rescue Coordination Center, said searchers heard no noise from inside the overturned hull overnight.

  "We'll continue the search when daylight comes," she said. "We'll start searching around the shores and in the fjords."

  She said five Dutch salvage experts flew in yesterday morning to help pump air pockets inside the hull, a process which was still ongoing.

  "But the boat isn't stable enough to let the divers go in yet," Roalso said.

  As hopes faded for finding more survivors inside the MS Rocknes, which was turned over and partly submerged in the frigid waters, experts placed containment booms around the wreck to prevent any of more than 500 tonnes of oil and diesel fuel aboard from spreading.

  The freighter, with 29 crew and the Norwegian ship's pilot aboard, capsized on Monday in a narrow inlet between the island of Bjoroey and Norway's western coast, less than 200m from land, at about 1530GMT just after it put out a distress call.

  Witnesses said the 166m freighter, loaded with rocks and headed for Germany, appeared to struggle before it flipped over. The cause of the accident wasn't yet known.

  Cecelia Wathne, also of Rescue Coordination Center, southern Norway, said the crew included 24 Filipinos, three citizens of the Netherlands, two Norwegians and one German. The nationalities of the missing crew weren't released.

  Arleen Asuncion, from the Manila office of Bergen-based boat owner Jebsen Management, confirmed that one Filipino seaman died. Eight Filipinos were rescued and being treated in the Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, while 15 Filipinos were still missing, she said.

  She had no information about the cause of the accident. Families of all Philippine crew members had been informed of the wreck and a center was being set up to help them.

  After hours of effort, rescuers managed to cut a hole in the ship and pull out three crew members who had been heard pounding the inside of the ship's hull on Monday night.

  "All of them were conscious, and talking," said Trygve Hillestad, a police spokesman at the scene, adding they were taken out seven hours after the ship flipped over.

  Early yesterday, Anders Bang-Andersen, also of the rescue center, said there had been no other signs of life emanating from the hull, which was enveloped in the subfreezing temperatures and darkness of the northern winter.

  Rescuers welded the first hole shut to prevent water from entering and Andersen said new holes would only be cut if rescuers heard evidence of life inside the wreckage.

  At least 15 rescue ships and small boats responded quickly, most from a nearby Norwegian naval base. Helicopters buzzed over the scene in the darkness.

  Darkness and the extremely slippery surface of the ship's hull, which was covered by patches of ice, complicated the rescue effort.

  Atle Jebsen, of Jebsen Management, said the freighter had been loaded with stone bound for Emden, Germany.
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