Mangaluru : The Coast Guard rescued six crew members who were onboard the vessel Safina AL-Mirzan on Saturday. The vessel sailed from Old Mangalore Port at 2.30 pm on Friday, to Kiltan Island Lakshadweep, carrying 120 tonnes of spices, foodgrains, vegetables, sand and granite.

DIG S B Venkatesh, commander, Coast Guard, Karnataka, stated that Coast Guard Dornier 773, whilst on a routine sortie, picked up a distress call at 11.35 am from a vessel Safina AL-Mirzan off the Mangaluru coast. The aircraft, after a thorough search of the area for almost 30 minutes, sighted the debris and six personnel floating in the water, in the sea.

The aircraft crew, after assessing the sea conditions, dropped the life raft from mid-air, to save the precious lives of the crew of the boat. The wind speed was touching 20 knots at the time, and current was at 1.5 knots.

Coast Guard Karnataka took swift action based on inputs received from the Dornier aircraft, and sent a high-speed interceptor boat for a search and rescue mission. The boat reached the site in less than an hour, and rescued the six crew of the ill-fated vessel, who were in distress due to flooding of the boat’s engine room, about 40 nautical miles south-east of Mangaluru.

The initial assessment by the rescue team revealed that seepage of seawater into the boat’s engine room had caused the vessel to sink 30 nautical miles west of Kasaragod. The crew members, of whom five are from Gujarat, and one is from the city, are in good health, and are being brought to New Mangalore Port, and will be handed over to the coastal police and fisheries department for further action.