A tanker carrying 13.3 million liters of industrial ethanol exploded and sank about 80km off the Virginia coast, the Coast Guard said. At least three of the 27 crew members died and most of the others were missing.
Two people died among the eight transported by helicopter to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, spokeswoman Vicky Gray said. The other six men were being evaluated, she said.
Toni Keiser, a spokeswoman for Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin, Maryland, said a dead man from the tanker was brought to the hospital and that two rescue divers were treated and released there for minor injuries.
The Bow Mariner, a 171m tanker flying a Singapore flag, made an emergency call just after 6pm, saying there had been an explosion on board, said Petty Officer Stacey Pardini of the Coast Guard Atlantic area in Portsmouth, Virginia.
The explosion occurred about 80km east of Chincoteague, Virginia, after a fire started on the deck of the ship, said Lieutenant Chris Shaffer of Ocean City (Maryland) Emergency Services.
"When the rescue divers got on the scene the fuel tanker was on fire, sinking and there was people in the water," Shaffer said. He added that the six survivors rescued were in critical condition.
Three helicopters, three Coast Guard boats and a C-130 plane were searching for survivors.
Coast Guard Senior Chief John Moss said late Saturday night that nine crew members were accounted for, including seven survivors. One survivor was picked up by a commercial fishing boat, he said.
"We have no indication that this was anything other than an accident at this point," Moss said, adding that he didn't know what caused the explosion.
Moss said the Coast Guard did not know how much of the ethanol was released into the water.
Betty Turner, a nursing supervisor at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, Maryland, said her hospital had been notified to expect a victim who may have suffered burns.
The ship is a chemical tanker, built in 1982 and owned by a Greek company, Ceres Hellenic Shipping Enterprises Ltd. A company spokesman confirmed the ship had a crew of 27 and said "there is no information yet on their fate."
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
Former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a Peruvian presidential hopeful, gathered hundreds of supporters in Lima on Tuesday and gave authorities 24 hours to annul the first round of the country’s election over allegations of fraud. Lopez Aliaga is locked in a tight three-way race with two other candidates for second place in Sunday’s vote. The election runner-up wins a ticket to June’s presidential run-off against front-runner Keiko Fujimori. “I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,” said Lopez Aliaga, surrounded by a crowd of several hundred supporters. “If it is not declared null and void tomorrow,
PAPAL RETORT: Pope Leo told reporters that he has ‘no fear, neither of the Trump administration nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel’ US President Donald Trump has feuded with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran conflict — setting off an unholy row that could have serious political implications for the Republican leader back in the US. Trump has drawn barbs even from some allies over the attacks on the US-born pontiff, who has criticized the Trump administration over its immigration crackdown, the intervention in Venezuela and the Iran war. The president risks alienating the religious right in November’s crucial US midterm elections. So far the unprecedented clash between the leader of the most powerful military on Earth and the head of the world’s 1.4 billion
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in Florida in the death of his 18-year-old stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship, the US Department of Justice said on Monday. Timothy Hudson was initially charged in February and subsequently indicted on March 10, but the breadth of the case was not known until a seal was lifted on Friday last week, weeks after US District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami said that he would be prosecuted as an adult at the request of the government. Anna Kepner had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship in November last
RSS