Freighter sank, crew rescued

The "Xin Hang 868", 498 gt, reported water ingress and was sinking on July 31, 2017, at 7.22 p.m. near Meizhou island, north of Quanzhou in the Taiwan Strait. The vessel with 900 tons of sand was en route from Hainan to Ningbo when it was caught in adverse weather. An SAR operation was launched, involving the SAR ship "Dong Hai Jiu 111" (IMO: 9326469) and nearby passing vessels. Notwithstanding the rough weather, the SAR ship managed to rescue all seven crew members from a liferaft with no injures reported.