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Twenty-three members of Thailand’s navy are still missing at sea after a warship on a routine patrol capsized on Sunday night. Photo by Royal Thai Navy.
Dec. 20 (UPI) — Twenty-three members of Thailand’s navy are still missing at sea after a warship on a routine patrol capsized on Sunday night.
The ship sank about 20 miles off the coast of Bang Saphan district in central Thailand.
Six bodies have been recovered and 76 crew members were rescued as of early Tuesday afternoon. The HTMS Sukhothai was carrying a crew of 105 people when it was caught in a strong storm. The main hull took water, which eventually reached its central power and caused the ship to lose electricity.
An investigation is underway into how the hull was breached. The navy said it has not lost a vessel in this way before.
“It’s really unusual,” naval law expert David Letts, an associate professor at the Australian National University, told BBC. “The ship’s divided into compartments — and there should be a series of watertight doors that start on the upper deck, so the ocean doesn’t get down into the ship itself.”
The most recent rescue, according to BBC, took place 41 hours after the ship sank.
“So we believe that there are those still alive out there… we will continue to search,” said Admiral Chonlathis Navanugraha, the navy’s chief of staff.
According to the accounts of rescuers, some sailors appear to have leapt from the ship, though it is unknown what caused them to jump. Several survivors have been found without life vests.
A statement from the Royal Thai Navy said strong winds caused the corvette to tilt. Naval ships and Thai Air Force crafts were immediately called upon to assist in a search and rescue mission spanning a 30-mile radius near the site of the ship.
The bodies of five recovered sailors are being taken for identification on Tuesday.
At least 11 troops were sent to Bang Saphan Hospital and 40 were brought to a shelter center after rescue.
