| Submit your comments on this article |
| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| US Navy rescues 27 from burning ship |
| 2005-05-14 |
| A US Navy ship rescued 27 people after their vessel caught fire in the Northern Persian Gulf on Wednesday night, forcing them to jump onto a life raft. USS Mustin, a destroyer currently on maritime security operations in the area, responded to distress signals from the Panamanian-flagged Motor Vessel Olympias. It was not immediately clear where the vessel originated and where it was heading when an engine-room fire engulfed it around 11 pm local time on Wednesday. Apart from the Indians, a Sri Lankan and a Nepalese national were safely evacuated. All of them are in good health, the US Naval Forces Central Command said. "When crew members from the destroyer arrived on scene, they found the motor vessel's superstructure burning and 27 people from Olympias jumping into a life raft," it said in a release. Sailors transferred all of them to Mustin's rigid-hull inflatable boats, and then onto another US Navy ship, USS Carl Vinson. The crew of Olympias notified Vinson of the fire via bridge-to-bridge radio. Vinson, which is providing air support for ground forces in Iraq, alerted Mustin for the rescue operation. The cause of the fire was still to be determined. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 Prolly shoulda hung around and inhaled the smoke, swabbis, lol! My first guess is that Motor Vessel Olympias was prolly hauling hash. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-05-14 04:20 |