China has deployed two vessels to assist in the search for the missing crewmembers of a commercial ship that sank in the Bay of Bengal off India's eastern coast earlier this month.
The two Chinese vessels are now working in conjunction with the Indian Coast Guard, the Indian Navy and other agencies to attempt to locate the 22 seafarers who were assigned to the Panama-registered bulk carrier Ocean Winner at the time of her loss on August 22.
On the day of the incident, the 72,928DWT ship had departed the Port of Paradip and was en route to Singapore with over 71,000 tonnes of iron ore and a 24-strong crew consisting of one Bangladeshi, three Burmese, and 20 Chinese nationals.
The ship sank approximately 240 nautical miles off Paradip. Only two of her crew have so far been rescued.
These two individuals have remained the only reported survivors of the incident.
The only other recovered traces of the missing ship are an activated emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) and an empty lifeboat.
Both the EPIRB and the lifeboat were found adrift around 290 nautical miles off Paradip by the crew of the Indian Coast Guard Vikram-class offshore patrol vessel ICGS Varad on the morning (local time) of Tuesday, August 25.
Indian authorities have not yet determined the cause of the ship's sinking or the eventual fate of the missing sailors.