A cargo ship suffered water ingress and subsequently sank off Thailand's Phuket province, causing fuel oil and a number of containers to end up in the sea, on Saturday, February 7.
The crew of the Panamanian-flagged container vessel Sealloyd Arc sent out a distress call at around 15:20 local time on Saturday to inform Thai maritime authorities that the ship was taking on water and had begun listing heavily.
All 16 crewmembers, who were later identified as Bangladeshi nationals, jumped into the water as the ship sank. Eight of the crew were picked up by a Good Samaritan fishing boat while the remainder were rescued by a patrol boat sent by the Phuket Provincial Administration.
The Royal Thai Navy dispatched boats and a surveillance aircraft to the area to monitor the vessel, which sank at approximately 21:00.
Sealloyd Arc had earlier left Port Klang in Malaysia and was en route to Chattogram with a cargo of 229 containers. The ship's manifest had listed 14 of the containers as being laden with hazardous materials.
Local officials said that some of the containers went down with the ship as it sank while others have been sighted floating on the surface.
Efforts are underway to limit the spread of the oil spill from the sunken ship while a salvage plan is being devised with the aim of recovering the floating containers.
