Thai navy search for 31 sailors after ship sinks in Gulf of Thailand
31 missing as Thai navy ship sinks in Gulf of Thailand; 75 sailors rescued so far
Thai navy ships and helicopters searched Monday for more than 30 sailors still missing more than 17 hours after their warship sank in rough seas in the Gulf of Thailand.
As of Monday afternoon, 75 sailors from the corvette HTMS Sukhothai had been rescued and 31 were still missing, the navy said.
The high waves that caused the accident had eased since the sinking Sunday night, but were still high enough to endanger small boats, the Navy said.
The rescued crew member, interviewed by Thailand’s PBS, said he had to float in the sea for three hours before being rescued.
He said the ship was hit by waves of 3 meters (10 feet) as it sank on Sunday night, complicating rescue efforts.
The waves are still high and we cannot look for them from the horizontal line. Instead, we have to fly helicopters and look for them from a bird’s eye view, Navy spokesman Admiral Pokkrong Monthatphalin told Thailand’s PBS.
Eleven of the rescued sailors were treated in hospital. The navy denied a local media report that one death had been confirmed, saying the death was caused by an accident with another boat.
Strong winds drove seawater onto the HTMS Sukhothai on Sunday night, knocking out its electrical system, making the ship difficult to control.
The navy sent three frigates and two helicopters with mobile pumping machines to try to help the stricken ship by removing seawater, but were unable to do so due to strong winds.
The loss of power allowed more seawater to flow into the vessel, causing it to list and sink.
The Thai Meteorological Department issued a weather warning for the general area just hours before the accident, saying waves in the Gulf of Thailand were expected to be 2-4 meters (7-14 ft) high with thunderstorms.
It advised all boats to proceed with caution and warned small vessels not to put out to sea until Tuesday.
The Sukhothai was built in Tacoma, Washington and commissioned in 1987. With a maximum displacement of 959 tons and a length of 76.8 meters (252 ft), she is about medium in size for a corvette, a type of armed vessel typically used for close patrol coastal waters.
The warship was on patrol 32 kilometers (20 mi) from a jetty in Bangsaphan District, Prachuap Khiri Khan Province. Pokkrong said the ship was on regular patrol to assist any fishing boats that needed assistance.
Our highest priority now is to save all sailors. We will plan for the ship to be salvaged later,” he said. The search was underway in an area of 16 square kilometers (6.2 square miles) around the sinking site.
While northern and central Thailand are experiencing the coldest temperatures of the year, far south Thailand has been experiencing thunderstorms and flooding in recent days.
