Helicopter on rescue mission crashes into sea

BY MARC LOURDES

PETALING JAYA: A US Coast Guard helicopter which was trying to rescue crew members from a disabled freighter – the Malaysian-flagged Selendang Ayu – crashed in the Bering Sea, Alaska, in rough conditions on Thursday. 

Six of the ship's non-Malaysian crew, who had been airlifted into the helicopter, are missing in rough and frigid waters, according to USA Today. 

Some 30 minutes after the doomed rescue attempt, the ship, which had been floundering since Tuesday, ran aground in Alaska and broke in two.  

The Coast Guard and tugboats had been trying since Tuesday to halt the drifting freighter but 7.6m-high swells and 30-knot winds broke towlines on each attempt. 

FURY: The Selendang Ayu is buffeted by furious winds and heavy seas before running aground and breaking in two near Alaska on Wednesday.- APpic

On Wednesday evening, the freighter started to flood and the captain requested the entire crew to be evacuated from the vessel, following the 18 crew members who had been rescued earlier, the newspaper said.  

The captain and a Coast Guard rescue swimmer remained onboard and were picked up by a second helicopter before the ship ran aground. 

According to USA Today, the search continued late on Thursday for the six people still lost, with water temperatures at about 6°C and waves as high as six metres. 

“The survival time is right around three hours in those conditions,” said Alaskan Coast Guard commander Rear Adm. James Olson. 

The missing people are five Indian nationals and one Filipino. 

Four remaining passengers on the helicopter – three Coast Guard personnel and a member of the ship’s crew – were later picked up and taken to Dutch Harbour in Unalaska Island for medical treatment, according to the newpaper.  

The crash of the Selendang Ayu, which was laden with some 1.7 million litres of fuel, prompted fears among the Coast Guard of an oil spill in the area which is home to sensitive wildlife habitats and fisheries. 

The 225m-long freighter is owned by the Singapore-based IMC Group.  

Olson said the Coast Guard was now responding to a possible fuel spill and was transporting oil containment boom to the island’s Dutch Harbour.