A tanker carrying 13.3 million liters of industrial ethanol exploded and sank about 80km off the Virginia coast, the Coast Guard said. At least three of the 27 crew members died and most of the others were missing.
Two people died among the eight transported by helicopter to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, spokeswoman Vicky Gray said. The other six men were being evaluated, she said.
Toni Keiser, a spokeswoman for Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin, Maryland, said a dead man from the tanker was brought to the hospital and that two rescue divers were treated and released there for minor injuries.
The Bow Mariner, a 171m tanker flying a Singapore flag, made an emergency call just after 6pm, saying there had been an explosion on board, said Petty Officer Stacey Pardini of the Coast Guard Atlantic area in Portsmouth, Virginia.
The explosion occurred about 80km east of Chincoteague, Virginia, after a fire started on the deck of the ship, said Lieutenant Chris Shaffer of Ocean City (Maryland) Emergency Services.
"When the rescue divers got on the scene the fuel tanker was on fire, sinking and there was people in the water," Shaffer said. He added that the six survivors rescued were in critical condition.
Three helicopters, three Coast Guard boats and a C-130 plane were searching for survivors.
Coast Guard Senior Chief John Moss said late Saturday night that nine crew members were accounted for, including seven survivors. One survivor was picked up by a commercial fishing boat, he said.
"We have no indication that this was anything other than an accident at this point," Moss said, adding that he didn't know what caused the explosion.
Moss said the Coast Guard did not know how much of the ethanol was released into the water.
Betty Turner, a nursing supervisor at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, Maryland, said her hospital had been notified to expect a victim who may have suffered burns.
The ship is a chemical tanker, built in 1982 and owned by a Greek company, Ceres Hellenic Shipping Enterprises Ltd. A company spokesman confirmed the ship had a crew of 27 and said "there is no information yet on their fate."
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
STEADFAST DART: The six-week exercise, which involves about 10,000 troops from nine nations, focuses on rapid deployment scenarios and multidomain operations NATO is testing its ability to rapidly deploy across eastern Europe — without direct US assistance — as Washington shifts its approach toward European defense and the war in Ukraine. The six-week Steadfast Dart 2025 exercises across Bulgaria, Romania and Greece are taking place as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches the three-year mark. They involve about 10,000 troops from nine nations and represent the largest NATO operation planned this year. The US absence from the exercises comes as European nations scramble to build greater military self-sufficiency over their concerns about the commitment of US President Donald Trump’s administration to common defense and
RSS