23 crew members of the Maltese-registered freighter Oceania had to go in the boats after their ship Friday - by yet unknown reasons - collided with the Panamanian registered Bulker Xin Tai Hai, 8 miles off the tiny Malaysian island of Pulau plantains.
Oceaania sank two hours after the collisionAll crew members were unharmed and was soon after picked up by another ship, MV Ikaruga, which took them to Singapore. Oceania, which is seen sinking on the small image, disappeared into the waves two hours after the collision. The other party in the collision, Xin Tai Hai, is now anchored near the spot where the collision took place, as seen in the picture, it has deep gashes in the ship's side, although all are above the waterline. Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency has so far deployed two ships rejects the position where Oceania sank. There are no reports of oil spills in the collision.
Malaysian authorities also reported both vessels were bound for Singapore. Initial report (based on information received from crew) states B Oceania was disabled and drifting, vessel was struck by Chinese bulk carrier though B Oceania had all lights on, and then Chinese vessel fled the scene. Crew said B Oceania was struck twice. I was asked to remove pic of sinking B Oceania in the interests of investigation, later I’ll hang it out again.
Bulk carrier Xin Tai Hai IMO 9106778 (Equasis gives another IMO number, 9512733), dwt 180346, built 2011, flag Panama, crew 26 all Chinese, manager Vision Ship Management Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
Container ship Ikaruga IMO 9106778, dwt 24382, built 1995, flag Singapore, manager NYK Shipmanagement, Singapore.