PRATHIBHA CAUVERY GROUNDING - 5 DEAD, ONE STILL MISSING

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PRATHIBHA CAUVERY GROUNDING - 5 DEAD, ONE STILL MISSING

The bodies of 4 crew members of MT Pratibha Cauvery, which was grounded by

Cyclone Nilam,  Of the total 37 men on board, 22 had taken to the lifeboat.

While 16 managed to reach ashore, one drowned while five others went missing.

The bodies of three of the five missing sailors were recovered on Nov 2. Two of

them had washed ashore, one near the Chennai Harbour and one at Adyar estuary.

The third was found at sea. These 4 were among the five who went missing on

Wednesday after a lifeboat they were using to leave the ship capsized.

When the cyclone made its landfall, the ship's captain had sent out a

distress call, but got no response.

The Coast Guard and the Tamil Nadu government's Coastal Security Group were

unable to launch rescue operations immediately; they said the gusty winds and

bad weather didn't allow it.

Chennai Port officials said the ship's captain had ignored instructions to

leave for safe waters following the cyclone alert.

But the family of one of the sailors who died while trying to abandon the ship

has filed a petition in court alleging that the vessel was not sea-worthy and

had no food or fuel on board.

Sankara Narayanan, brother of Anand Mohandoss, one of the deceased sailors,

alleged the company (apparently Pratibha Shipping Co., as per a DG Shipping

list of Aug 2011) did not provide food or salaries to its crew, adding if

proper food had been provided, his brother could have lived through the

calamity.

Following this petition, the Madras High Court yesterday ordered that the

ship not leave Chennai port area.

DG Shipping will investigate the incident which occurred after the ship was

asked to

move to high seas on October 30 as a precautionary measure in view of the

cyclone.

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