Five sailors are still missing even as the Coast Guard, on Thursday morning, rescued 15 crew members on board Pratibha Cauvery.
Union Shipping Minister G K Vasan told reporters that around 6.30 am, the 15 persons stranded on board the vessel were safely rescued by two Coast Guard helicopters and that one of the crew members died while trying to reach ashore.
Meanwhile, sources said all the 15 sailors rescued by the Coast Guard were in good health and taken to the Fortis Malar Hospital, where they were put together with the other 16 sailors who managed to reach ashore. Coast Guard authorities said that they had launched a massive search operation to locate the five missing crew members.
A senior Coast Guard official blamed the Captain for sending the distress signal around 4 pm. “We got the distress signal only after 4 pm. It was the around that time when Cyclone Nilam had a landfall,” said a top CG official.
However, local fishermen alleged that the Coast Guard reached only around 6.30 pm, by which time a sizeable number of crew members were rescued.
A senior Indian Navy official said that the ship’s Captain did not heed the instruction to not let the crew enter the waters. “Those who stayed on board did not face any problem,” he said.