A lifeboat has been located by a Boeing P-8I Long Range Maritime Reconnaissance Anti-Submarine warfare aircraft of the Indian Navy during efforts to locate 10 missing sailors of m.v. Emerald Star that sank off the Philippines coast on Friday.
The vessel had 26 crew members, many of them from Tamil Nadu. While 11 were rescued by m.v. Densa Cobra and are currently in Xiamen, China, five were rescued by m.v. SM Samarinda and they are in the Philippines.
"The crew of the aircraft sighted an inverted lifeboat about 10m long in the search area. The same was relayed to the Japan Coast Guard (JCG) Okinawa to investigate. A JCG ship reported that it has already searched the boat and didn’t find any survivors or bodies," the Navy said.
Officials of Vridhi Maritime Pvt Ltd. that manages the ship told The Hindu that they did not received any update on the status of the missing sailors. "We are awaiting information on those missing... We are yet to get any update," a spokesperson for the company said.
